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EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 




EDUCATION 
FOR CITIZENSHIP 



Prize Essay 

-vvvxi..^ii by 

Dr. GEORG KERSCHENSTEINER 

Member of the Royal Council of Education 

and 

Director of the Public Schools of Munich 



\f Translated by 

K. jVpressland 

from the 

Fourth Improved and Enlarged Edition 

for 

and published under the auspices 

of 

THE COMMERCIAL CLUB 
' OF CHICAGO 



RAND McNALLY & COMPANY 

CHICAGO LONDON NEW YORK 



A^ 






^\,4 



Copyright, iQii, 
By Rand, McNally & Company 



©CI.A283906 



AUTHOR'S NOTE 

This first English translation of my essay, "Staatsburgerliche 
Erzlehung der Deutschen Jugend," was made at my request, 
and has been reviewed by me with the translator. It Is the 
only authorized English translation ; and I am glad The Com- 
mercial Club of Chicago deems the essay of sufficient value to 
give It to the thoughtful readers of America and England. 

Georg Kerschensteiner. 

Chicago, November 14, 1 910. 



A FOREWORD 

The Commercial Club of Chicago, recognizing the impera- 
tive need of practical, vocational training to supplement prerent 
public school courses, has engaged Dr. Edwin G. Cooley, for- 
merly Superintendent of Schools of Chicago, to investigate the 
industrial education systems of Europe, with a view to learning 
what place such courses of study should have in the public 
school systems of America. 

In pursuit of this task the Club has secured the English 
translation of Dr. Georg Kerschensteiner's prize essay entitled 
''Education for Citizenship." This is the first presentation in 
English of the theories which Dr. Kerschensteiner has so suc- 
cessfully demonstrated in the now famous continuation schools 
of Munich. 



Vll 



INTRODUCTION 

This book will be a landmark In the history of education. It 
is a book of ideas which have been realized in practical admin- 
istration. When it first appeared it sounded a new note of 
advance. It threw a fresh light upon the educational responsi- 
bilities of the State. It made those into whose hands it fell 
understand that the changed conditions of our economic and 
industrial life called for a new departure in educational policy. 
The old limits of compulsory attendance at school have become 
abolished. Educational supervision must be carried forward, 
in some suitable form, through the critical years of adolescence. 
This continued education must be dovetailed into industry and 
into all kinds of wage-earning employment by cooperation 
between the public authorities, the parents of the young people, 
and the individual employers concerned. But in such a course 
of continued education something more than purely technical 
or commercial training is required. Preparation for the duties 
of citizenship is not less indispensable than preparation for a 
trade. And preparation for the duties of citizenship means 
that the school must endeavor to impart a civic and moral 
ideal. Such is the argument of the book. And now both 
Europe and America recognize its truth. 

A book is more than doubled in value when the writer of it 
proves that he can successfully work out his ideas in practice. 
This is the case with the volume now before the reader. As 
superintendent of education in one of the most famous cities of 
the world. Dr. Kerschensteiner has proved that he is as capable 
in the art of administration as in the art of literary expression. 

ix 



X INTRODUCTION 

He is a thinker who can translate his thought into practice; a 
doer of things which are the realization of an ideal. It is no 
accident that the strongest influence toward the humanizing of 
the technical continuation school has come from Munich, one 
of the great art centers of Europe. 

Dr. Kerschensteiner's educational policy is inspired by a 
belief in the power of a living art to kindle a fine ideal of life. 
His plans appeal to something higher than commercialism and 
profit making. Greater value, indeed, the adoption of his 
policy may give to the prowess of skilled industry; but in- 
creased pecuniary gain, if it comes, will be a bye-product of it, a 
collateral result. The primary aim of the reformed continua- 
tion school is to produce better men and women. And it will 
help in doing this by setting before the younger members of 
the community a noble conception of civic duty, and by encour- 
aging them to seek for the happiness which comes from doing 
creative work in the self-realizing, self-forgetting spirit of the 
true artist, which is also the spirit of the patriotic citizen. 
"Here," said one great painter of another, "here is the consum- 
mate workman who gladly recognizes the measure of his freedom 
within the four walls of his limitation, and thus illustrates the 
fine old words, whose service is perfect freedom.' " 

This book now appears for the first time in English. Its 
translation has been a labor of love to one who, himself a 
teacher, has entered with quick insight and sympathy into Dr. 
Kerschensteiner's educational aim and civic purpose. Our 
thanks are due to Mr. Pressland for the skill and care with 
which he has discharged no easy task. 

M. E. Sadler. 

The University of Manchester 
August, 1 910. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Existing Opportunities: Their Develop- 

ment AND Their Deficiencies i 

I. The necessity of public education. 2. The situa- 
tion in the nineteenth century. 3. Changes in the 
last half of the nineteenth century. 4. Their defects 
and merits. 5. Significance of the people's schools. 
6. Danger in the early discontinuance of common 
school education. 7. The difficulty of the educational 
task of the State. 

II. The Aim of Civic Education 15 

I. Divergence of views. 2. The general task of the 
State. 3. The general educational aim of constitu- 
tional States. 4. Aim of education for the working 
classes. 5. The onesidedness of the policy up to the 
present time. 6. The three educational stages. 

III. The External Conditions 35 

I. The general basis. 2. Hours of labor and wages. 

3. Dwelling houses. 4. The special calling itself. 
5. School monopoly. 6. Class monopoly. 7. Attitude 
of the upper classes. 8. Educational condition of the 
masses. 9. Educational condition of women. 

IV. The Internal Conditions 48 

I. Egoism. 2. Altruism. 3. Relation of egoism to 
altruism. 4. Relation of autonomous and heterono- 
mous education. 5. Importance of work in the educa- 
tion of the intellect and the will. 6. The social neces- 

xi 



Xll 



TABLE OF CONTENTS \ 



CHAPTER PAGE 

sity of education. 7. Relation of will and Intelligence. 

8. The significance of pleasure In work. 

V. The Scholastic Educative Forces 6 

1. A backward glance over the field of education. 

2. The results thereof. 3. Extension of the field of 
school education. 4. The necessary extension of the 
city continuation school. 5. Instruction In citizenship. 
6. Instruction In hygiene. 7. Importance of system- 
atic training of the body. 8. Evening entertainments. 

9. The organization of the continuation schools of 
Munich. 10. The systematic building up of continua- 
tion schools for the country districts. 11, The system- 
atic building up of trade schools. i2.iThe utilization 
of the manual training school. 

VI. The Importance of Practical Work in School 97 

1. Information about, versus training for, citizenship. 

2. The lessons of the workshop as an Instrument for 
education for citizenship. 3. Other means of educa- 
tion for citizenship. 4. School savings banks as a ^"^ 
means of leading up to the Idea of reciprocity. 5. Self- 
government as a means of education for citizenship. 

6. Possibility of introducing self-government. 7. The 
school in its relation to alumni associations. 

VII. The Non-scholastic Educative Forces iii 

I. Private educational agencies in general. 2. Im- 
portance of devotion to the interests of others. 3. The 
task of the people's educational associations. 4. Com- 
bination of the people's high schools and the people's 
hygienic associations. 5. Libraries. 6. The great 
importance of the gymnastic societies for our purpose. 

7. Example in England. 8. Substitutes for the gym- 
nastic societies In the country districts. 9. Gymnastics 
and will power. 10. Educational councils. 



rC 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VIII. Concluding Remarks 126 

I. The most immediate aim of education. 2. The 
impediment of poverty. 3. The impediment of lack of 
ability. 4. Diversity of school systems. 5. Necessity 
of a broad organization oi all the sdhools. 6. The 
influence of international intercourse upon the people's 
education. 7. The education of the upper classes and 
its importance for the education of the masses. 



NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR 

Two courses are always open to a translator — he may either 
endeavor to reproduce a masterpiece of literature in a version 
of equal literary merit, or he may attempt to convey the mean- 
ing of an author in the author's own way. 

Of these two methods the latter has been adopted here, since 
the object of the translation is to give those who have no readi- 
ness in reading German a clear idea of Dr. Kerschensteiner's 
objects and policy. 



XV 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 

In the spring of the year 1900 the Royal Academy of Useful 
Knowledge of Erfurt, Germany, announced a prize competition 
of which the theme was: ''How are our young men, from the 
time of leaving the Volksschule (age fourteen years) until the 
entrance into military service (age twenty years), to be edu- 
cated for citizenship?" As director of a great city school sys- 
tem this question had interested me in the most lively way for 
many years. Shortly before the announcement of the subject 
of the prize competition I had been employed upon a sketch of 
an educational organization which should care for the youth of 
Munich who were beyond the years of compulsory attendance. 
The working out of this plan had been approved by a unani- 
mous vote, so far as the principle was concerned, by the action 
of the two city councils at the end of April, 1900. Now, a 
year later, the theoretical considerations which led me to pro- 
pose that plan of organization have received additional confirm- 
ation through the action of the Royal Academy in unanimously 
awarding the prize to the work lying before you. 

Heavy is the feeling of responsibility which weighs upon one 
who has to guide a great school system In a new path, great 
the pressure of anxiety which the work of clearing away the 
obstacles to a new organization brings with it, and frequent the 
doubts as to the reasonableness of one's plans, when not all 
the expected results are realized. The more one reflects on these 
things the more one feels the need of a dispassionate criticism 
of what one has felt, thought, and done, by a wide circle of 
Intelligent and Impartial men, and the more reassuring will their 

xvii 



xviii PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 

approval be in times of struggle with opposing currents of 
opinion, which spare no one who attempts to organize. 

In spite of this, one will always be conscious that in so inade^ 
quately developed a question as that of the education of the 
masses for citizenship, involving not alone considerations of 
technical education but the whole range of social and economic 
relations, the final answer under all the circumstances cannot 
be given. 

The stream of our civic life flows on in currents beyond the 
reach of the human eye. We estimate the direction in which 
it moves, and we mark out the goal which it should reach. 
The law of its motion is influenced by too many only partly 
known, still partly concealed, forces to make it possible for us 
to state it m a definite formula. Still we know that, among the 
unending series of forms in which the law displays itself, there 
are at least two principal influences governing its action, — the 
greatest possible insight on the part of the eflficient members of 
the State as to the goal we are struggling toward, and the 
devoted and self-sacrificing purpose of the eflicient to conduct 
the weaker ones with them to this goal. If we succeed in 
strengthening more and more these inner forces, we have done 
all that it is possible for the educator to do. 

Georg Kerschensteiner. 
Munich, July, 1901, 



PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 

During the last three years the thought of giving great care 
to education for citizenship, together with intellectual and tech- 
nical education, has really won greater recognition than ever 
before. The deliberations of the German Reichstag over finan- 
cial reform show that all classes need such an education, — not 
only the masses of workingmen, but the classes which we call 
well-to-do and educated. We recognize more clearly than 
ever before that neither scientific nor technical education will 
give, as a matter of course, any guarantee that the person so 
equipped will place his intellectual or technical weapons at the 
service of the general public, whenever circumstances demand 
it. We recognize more plainly than ever before that the much- 
admired organization of our German school system is under 
the pressing need of extending its work in the direction of 
character building — training for citizenship. Indeed, one can 
say that the demand for education for citizenship is beginning 
to be a battle-cry, with all the thoughtless superficiality that 
goes with a battle-cry. The real fundamentals, not only of 
education for citizenship but of all education, are in such cases 
Ignored, and the original conception bound up with this much- 
used name is lost sight of. This Is always the case with new 
ideas when they come into general circulation. 

There was a need In this fourth edition of making a careful 
revision. The improving hand was laid on almost all para- 
graphs, new facts were introduced, and a stricter definition of 
the conception was striven for. In Chapter II the difficult and 
much-contested question of the aim of the State, and the asso- 

xix 



XX PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION 

dated question of its task, were critically examined. In Chap- 
ter V the fundamental demand for the perfecting of a continua- 
tion school, which at the same time should give a guarantee for 
education for citizenship, was more sharply defined in order to 
make misunderstandings impossible for all future time. In 
doing this, the characteristics of the right kind of instruction 
for citizenship were worked out more definitely, in order that 
public education for citizenship should not suffer from the 
grave mistake which political parties make to-day when they 
color the meaning of the phrase with their partisan views. In 
the same chapter I have given a short description of our now 
happily completed organization of continuation schools in 
Munich. In Chapter VI entirely new matter is introduced. 
There is great danger that our measures for the advance of edu- 
cation for citizenship may go astray, as so many reforms of the 
last century did, by the introduction of a few more "ologies" 
into the heads of the children. It therefore appeared neces- 
sary to treat in this chapter, from a new point of view, the 
thought developed in Chapter IV, — the inner basis of education 
for citizenship. Whoever in the future, in his theory of educa- 
tion for citizenship, opposes this practical basis for the continua- 
tion school will first of all have to come to an understanding 
with the ideas of this chapter. 

Georg Kerschensteiner. 
Munich, May, 1909, 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 



CHAPTER I 

THE EXISTING OPPORTUNITIES: THEIR DEVELOPMENT 
AND THEIR DEFICIENCIES 

I. Every householder knows that the best way 
of protecting his property is to have it carefully in- 
spected from time to time, to have all damage 
repaired at once, and to take opportune precautions 
against impending risks by the introduction of 
improvements. These simple statements apply in a 
greater degree to the edifice which we call the State. 
But the complicated structure of the State, which 
makes it so hard for the honest inquirer to gain a 
thorough insight into its constitution or a complete 
grasp of its functions, also renders it exceedingly diffi- 
cult for him to perceive when and where amendment 
is necessary. In the past century we cherished for a 
long time the comfortable opinion that an edifice of 
this nature, possessing some sort of organic constitu- 
tion, would of its own accord evolve remedies for its 
shortcomings, provided it were only a healthy organ- 
ism. But what is meant by "the State a healthy 
organism"? To this question Plato gave an answer 



2 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

centuries ago: "Only that State is healthy and can 
thrive which unceasingly endeavors to improve the 
individuals who constitute it." He himself inquired 
into the best forms of government, and in his marvel- 
ous dialogue, The Republic, sketched an ideal State, the 
outline of its foundation, and the laws for its main- 
tenance. And when he was obliged to recognize that 
his sketch was a counsel of perfection, owing to his 
over-estimation of human capacity, he laid before 
the world a second sketch, entitled The Laws. In both 
of these works great importance is attached to public 
education as a fundamental necessity of civic life. The] 
same idea recurs at a later period, not only in the I 
works of great teachers who to a large extent are pro- 
fessionally interested in it, but in the lives of many 
prominent statesmen up to the commencement of the I 
nineteenth century. But though the idea gained in 
generality, it was seldom the subject of the same pro- 
found reflection. The great minister of Louis XIV, 
the famous Colbert, who for more than twenty years 
exercised unlimited control over the finances of France, 
displayed an extensive educational activity, though 
his motive was solely to increase the productive power 
of the State. His successor, Turgot, the adviser of 
Louis XV, endeavored to train the people on Plato's 
lines,! and nominated a Council of Education for the 
whole kingdom. Almost at the same time, that is, in 



iGustav Meier, Soziale Bewegungen und Theorien (Teubner), p. 95. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 3 

the middle of the eighteenth century, the great Scot- 
tish economist, Adam Smith, demanded compulsory 
primary education. At the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury and the beginning of the nineteenth we find almost 
all the great men considering the question. An over- 
powering idealism, a thing almost unknown to-day, and 
a fervent belief in the future of the human race, took 
possession of the leading intellects of the day. In 
Germany, Schiller wrote his brilliant letters on esthetic 
education and Fichte his much-admired Addresses to 
the German Nation. Freiherr vom Stein and Wil- 
helm von Humboldt were advocating by word and deed 
the education of the people. And the same spirit which 
inspired them found its practical application in the 
work of Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Schleiermacher. It 
was not to be expected that the utterances of these men 
would fall everywhere on deaf ears. As a matter of 
fact we trace in several German states at this time the 
first great beginnings of a general primary education 
as an acknowledged mainstay of the State. 

2. But the fire of this enthusiasm was soon 
quenched. Though other reasons for its extinction can 
be quoted, this alone is decisive : There was no real 
demand for education among the people, who were 
participating more and more in the affairs of the 
country. In fact, the people evinced greater or less 
opposition to the educational policy of those in power, 
and, as is often the case to-day, the opposition sprang 
principally from selfish and interested motives. Even 



4 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

In official circles zeal abated. People were contentea 
with the introduction of compulsory education and the 
foundation of training colleges, with having replaced 
old dames, toll-keepers, and time-expired soldiers by 
proper teachers. It was not until after the middle of 
the nineteenth century that the question again became 1 
prominent. But the Ideals of the old philosophers and 
economists no longer formed the motive power. 
"Culture," "Culture for its own sake," was the 
war-cry. And by "culture" was meant the greatest 
possible number of "ologles." Libraries of useful 
knowledge and mutual Improvement societies began to 
appear. The curricula of primary and secondary 
schools were extended, the syllabuses were increased to 
an Inordinate degree, the length of attendance was aug- 
mented, and the daily time-table enlarged. In politics 
no great educational movements are to be recorded. 
Our most prominent statesman, Bismarck, was occupied 
with other questions than that of public education. 
As all the rights and franchises which a liberal democ- 
racy considered absolutely necessary had then been 
granted to the people,^ it was believed that the latter, 
though still In a state of political infancy, would, as a 
consequence of the new training, use their powers to 
proper advantage. 

3. I have no desire to blame the franchise agita- 
tion of this period or to deplore its success, all the less 

^ Manhood suffrage, freedom of the press, freedom of marriage, 
freedom of trade. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 5 

since that evoked, as it was bound to do, an educa- 
tional activity which quickly made itself felt every- 
where. But it cannot be said that the educational 
policy was well planned or was possessed of a clear 
aim. This remark applies not only to the work of 
voluntary societies but also to official regulations. A 
possible exception occurs in the case of Austria, with 
its Education Act of 1869 and its excellently conceived 
extension of industrial education on the lines proposed 
In 1 88 1 by Dummreicher.^ 

The numerous and costly arrangements for extend- 
ing education beyond the compulsory age, which State 
action and private initiative have rendered possible 
during the last thirty years in Germany, may be classi- 
fied in the following six categories : 

{a) Organizations, purely of a scholastic nature, 
called into being by the State, or private societies, for 
example, general, industrial, commercial, and agricul- 
tural continuation schools, trade schools, and technical 
and monotechnical schools (Lehrwerkstatten). 

{h) Organizations, not of a scholastic nature, for 
the cultivation of intellectual and artistic tastes, pro- 
moted by science and art societies, university extension 
societies, public libraries, and similar institutions. 

{c) Public and private organizations for making 
life pleasanter, for example, the formation of public 



1 Dummreicher, Ueher die Aufgaben der Unterrichtspolitik im In- 
dustrie Staate Oesterreich, Vienna (Holder). 



6 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

playgrounds and the organization of popular enter- 
tainments and art exhibitions. 

{d) Private organizations for promoting physical 
training, that is, gymnastic societies, health lectures, 
temperance societies. 

{e) Social and philanthropic institutions of educa- 
tional value, such as apprentices' homes, working girls' 
clubs, rescue committees, volunteer fire brigades, and 
sanitary associations. 

(/) Public festivals for the preservation and exten- 
sion of the feeling of national unity. 

The origin of most of these organizations may be 
ascribed to the spirit which characterizes the latter 
half of the nineteenth century. An exception must be 
made in favor of the older gymnastic societies, which 
had been founded in the first part of the century as a | 
means of education with a national purpose. In the 
sixties and seventies the belief that elementary educa- 
tion by itself was insufficient to give the amount of edu- 
cation necessary for the people forced itself on the 
official mind. About this time the first detailed acts 
relating to public continuation schools were issued, with 
the avowed intention of strengthening or supplement- 
ing primary education. In some German states. Sax- 
ony (1873), Baden (1874), and Hesse (1874), the 
obligatory character of these schools was emphasized 
from the first. In others, as in Prussia and Bavaria, 
the question of compulsory attendance was left to the 
decision of the local authority. From 1870 onwards, 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 7 

technical training classes, people's education societies, 
and popular libraries began to develop rapidly/ The 
value of industrial art museums as a means of promot- 
ing both industrial efficiency and artistic taste gained 
greater recognition, and from this time forward we see 
a great increase in the hitherto scanty provisions of 
this nature. In the eighties the movement for provid- 
ing public playgrounds made great progress until, at 
the beginning of the nineties, the Central Committee 
for the Promotion of Athletics (Centralausschuss zur 
Forderung des Volks- and Jugendturnspiele) took up 
the work systematically. The first apprentices' homes 
were then established; sanitary measures, a result of 
the campaign of 1 870-1 871, received Increased atten- 
tion; and temperance societies were formed. In the 
nineties, university extension societies on the English 
model were founded, and for the first time the idea 
that the providing of high-class amusement was an Im- 
portant part of popular education found expression In 
evening entertainments of a popular nature.^ 



^ Cf. J. Tews, "Deutsche Bildungsverelne," In Reyer, Handbuch des 
Volhsbildungsioesens, Stuttgart, 1896 (Cotta), pp. 65-77. In 1871 the 
Gesellschaft fiir die Verbreitung von Volksbildung was founded in 
Berlin. In the same year the Volksbildungsverein in Munich appeared. 
In 1874 Diisseldorf and Dresden followed suit. In 1878 the 
Humboldtakademie in Berlin was opened. Among the important Bil- 
dungsvereine only a few, for example the Berlin Handwerkerverein 
and the Hamburg Bildungsverein, date much farther back (1844-1845). 

2 In Vienna the first great popular concert was held in 1892. In 
1895 there were held in Berlin twenty-four popular concerts of classical 
music, admission to which cost from thirty-five to forty pfennigs. In 



8 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

4. During the last thirty years the broad stream of 
general public education In German-speaking countries 
has thus received many additions, which have had their 
sources almost exclusively In the towns. The majority 
owe their origin to a right feeling among the educated 
classes; some may be ascribed to purely economic neces- 
sities, others to patriotic impulses, and others again to 
religious sentiment. If we consider the history of the 
most successful undertakings of this nature we notice 
an abundance of that spontaneous public-spirited activ- 
ity which disregards reward; an administrative energy 
in individual men and women worthy of all admiration; 
a readiness of sacrifice, and a highly developed altru- 
ism among the intellectual elite of society. But, in 
spite of all this, most of the organizations mentioned 
do not produce the results which might be expected of 
them. In particular, most of them suffer from one 
great defect — the lack of an appropriate organization 
as regards civic education. With few exceptions, these 
public-spirited endeavors can be immediately ascribed 
to two motives, — intellectual or artistic culture for its 
own sake, and pecuniary advantage. This is easily 
understood of an age in which scientific knowledge 



1897-1898 the first people's entertainment evenings were held in Mun- 
ich, and Volkssymphoniekonzerte have been held regularly since 1899. 
In the latter year Von Ebarth threw open certain performances at the 
Court Theatre in Gotha at a reduced fee to the peasant population. In 
1897, following the example of Frankfurt am Main, popular concerts 
were organized. Cf. Schriften fiir Arbeiter Wohlfahrtseinrichtungen, 
No. 78, Berlin, 1900 (Hegemann), p. 105. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 9 

showed a hitherto unheard-of growth, and the eco- 
nomic development of Germany received an impulse 
which in a short time converted a poor country into a 
prosperous one. In fact, we find all the important 
educational facilities organized entirely according to 
these two points of view; that is to say, all trade and 
continuation classes, whether they are maintained by 
the nation, the local authorities, or by private individ- 
uals. To spread knowledge and to insure dexterity 
were the principal aims of these societies. But knowl- 
edge and skill can be employed selfishly as well as 
altruistically, and they certainly will be employed 
selfishly if in these very schools we neglect to direct the 
attention of the masses to general considerations and 
to curb the selfishness of the individual while at the 
same time strengthening his feeling of solidarity. 

We must add one more to the shortcomings of mod- 
ern educational endeavor. In nearly all towns it is a 
common thing to find different societies with quite simi- 
lar aims working side by side and dissipating in their 
competition both mental effort and material means. 
Only in a few towns, of which Basel is a notable 
example, has it been possible to prevent this, and to 
combine all efforts for the improvement of popular 
education and public well-being in a single society of 
public endeavor. Finally, in all the endeavors of the 
last thirty years the peasantry has been almost entirely 
overlooked. In the broad German counties there are 
neither technical classes nor mutual improvement 



lo EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP ^| 

societies for the peasantry. There are no opportuni- 
ties for instruction in art or politics; it is even difficult 
to say that the continuation schools have as yet gained 
a footing. Only the fire brigades and regimental socie- 
ties are available for the cultivation of a feeling of 
solidarity, though here and there local clubs endeavor 
to foster a common, but often one-sided, trade interest. 
Exactly as at the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
this part of the German nation has still to rely on the 
primary school for the whole of its instruction In civics. 
5. Now the public elementary school is a great 
achievement of the nineteenth century, in the first half 
of which It satisfied the modest requirements of civic 
education when well conducted and carefully super- 
vised. With a minimum attendance of seven full 
school years It can still furnish the elementary instruc- 
tion necessary as a foundation for further training and 
education; Indeed, from the very beginning It exer- 
cises a considerable amount of educative influence. It 
provides the means indispensable under modern condi- 
tions for human intercourse, and gives the individual 
better prospects of success In life. Beyond doing this, 
the work of the primary school cannot be regarded as 
effective, for, with the leaving age fixed at fourteen, 
the pupil at the end of his school career Is intellectually 
too Immature. It Is precisely on this account that the 
Swiss cantons have extended the age of compulsory 
attendance beyond what obtains In German schools. 
Thus Bern makes fifteen and Vaud sixteen years of 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP ii 

age the limit of compulsory attendance. It is true that 
the whole time of attendance (ten thousand to eleven 
thousand hours) in these cantons does not exceed the 
amount for German schools. But, though this is the 
case, no one will fail to recognize what an important 
advantage, in regard to public education, a school life 
of this kind, extending over nine or ten years, has as 
compared with our own. 

In consequence of the earlier termination of the 
primary school course certain subjects of the curricu- 
lum fail to exercise their special educative influence on 
the German pupil, who lacks the insight necessary for 
their comprehension. But beyond all this, the prema- 
ture release from school discipline means for most 
pupils a complete cessation of all systematic education, 
and this cessation occurs at an age when the demoraliz- 
ing influences of an uncontrolled life may have the 
most baneful effect on the budding moral character. 

6. In fact, we can say that in spite of extended 
syllabuses, perhaps even as a result of them, and in 
spite of an increase in the length of compulsory attend- 
ance, which only occurs locally and is still insuflicient 
when it does occur, the general primary school estab- 
lished at the beginning of the nineteenth century does 
not meet the requirements of society at the end of it, 
when economic, social, and political conditions have 
completely changed. The rapid growth of towns, and 
especially of great cities, with their moral dangers; 
the inevitable weakening of the old educative influences 



12 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

of family, trade, and class, which is a result of the 
economic, social, and political developments of the 
present day; the Increase of wealth and the growing 
desire for pleasure which accompanies it; the manner 
In which the people abuse the liberty won for them, 
by a liberal humanism and an Intelligent democracy;' 
the development of political conditions at home, and 
much else, make the complete cessation of an orderly 
public education at the age of thirteen or fourteen a 
grave disadvantage. Is it not strange that attendance 
at school up to the age of eighteen or nineteen is 
required from the small fraction of our people which 
is destined for the liberal professions, although they 
spring from families which possess both the means and 
the Intellectual qualifications for accomplishing their 
educational duties, while we expose the overwhelming 
majority of their future fellow-voters to the unguarded 
dangers of everyday life when they are still little more 
than children? The little that we are able to give our 
primary pupils Is sufficient to make the evil tendencies 
of everyday life as liable to Influence them as the good. 
As It Is impossible to give a definite direction to the 
character at the age of thirteen or fourteen by means 
of the primary school, and as young people at that age 
are without exception selfish, our primary education is 
for the individual, and still more for the mass, a gift of 
the Danaides rather than a bounty from heaven. We 
give the people all too readily a fire which It cannot 
tend, a hammer which it cannot wield, and a cast of 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 13 

mind on which the demagogue who promises every- 
thing can work more easily than the leader who 
remains faithful to high principles. 

7. Thus it is that at the end of the century thought- 
ful people are becoming conscious of the necessity for 
continuing public education beyond the compulsory 
term of the primary school. And, just as formerly, it 
is again the economist and the philosopher, cleric and 
layman, who demand with all earnestness the extension 
of civic education. It can truly be said that the great 
questions of political economy are bound up with those 
of education. In the same way, as many problems of 
national economy cannot be solved unless the people 
are well educated, so also is it impossible to introduce 
educational reforms without corresponding reforms 
in economic, in social, and even in political conditions. 
When the wolf waits at the door and thousands have 
to contend with hunger, will power is deficient, and 
strength is wanting to grasp a helping hand. Where 
miserable housing conditions, with their corrupting 
influences, kill the sense of home and family, the best 
part of our well-considered educational organization 
disappears without leaving a trace behind. If the 
upper classes have lost their moral fiber we shall seek 
in vain to reform the lower. On a close inspection of 
the relations mentioned we must recognize that the 
educational problem is exceedingly intricate, and that 
it is not to be solved without an educational policy of 
wide outlook, in which a knowledge of pedagogy as 



14 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

well as a knowledge of economics is assumed, and in 
which courage and energy are as necessary as sym- 
pathy. But, above all, an educational policy must have 
a clear aim towards which the citizen may be directed.i 
As to this aim, however, opinions differ so greatlyi 
that we must submit the question to a searching inquiry. ' 



CHAPTER II 

THE AIM OF CIVIC EDUCATION 

I. The aim of civic education depends upon the 
conception we form of the State and its functions. But 
how widely in this respect does a Bismarck differ from 
a Windthorst, a Bebel from a Von Sturm, a Vohaire 
from a Rousseau ! What differences there are in 
the apparently objective theories of government of 
Thomas Hobbes, of John Locke, and of Wilhelm von 
Humboldt ! A man like Hobbes — impressed with the 
idea of the omnipotence of the State, who knows no 
laws but those of the State, no religion but the State 
religion, no property but State property — must neces- 
sarily have different educational ideals from a man like 
Locke, who opposed the general laws of humanity to 
those of the statute book and admitted the right of 
resistance to any measure which does more than protect 
life, liberty, and property. A man like Wilhelm von 
Humboldt — who in his Ideen zu einem Versuche die 
Grenzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu hestimmen 
characterizes as harmful any care shown by the State 
for the material welfare of the citizen — must reject, as 
Humboldt did, not only the education of the citizen by 
the State, but also every public provision for education. 

IS 



i6 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

A man who understands by equality that equal political 
power should be given to the diligent and the indolent, 
to the just and the unjust, to the philosopher and the 
simpleton, and that differences of food, drink, and 
housing should disappear; one who understands by 
fraternity a brotherhood of proletariats, by freedom 
the right to have his own will respected above all else 
— this man will desire a different civic education from 
that advocated by the Christian Socialists of Eng- 
land,^ who preach that true equality consists In equal 
possibilities for all men to develop their capacity and 
talents; that, above all, freedom from prejudice must 
characterize a man before political or commercial free- 
dom can benefit him; and that fraternity must be ex- 
tended to others who hold opposite but perfectly honest 
opinions. Even In our own time Treltschke, genial 
historian and ardent patriot though he was, considered 
that the welfare of the State Is promoted by an organ- 
ization which deliberately keeps certain great masses of 
the people In a lower state of Intellectual cievelopment 
for purposes of mechanical toil, and thus affords the In- 
tellectual elite greater leisure to work for the good of 
the country. Even to-day there are many serious people 
who share his opinions, among them those who seek 
to demonstrate that Illiterates are necessary for menial 
work, and on this account wish to Impose limits on 



^ Cf. the excellent work by Von Nostitz, Das Aiifsteigen des Arbciter- 
standes in England, Jena, 19CX5 (Fischer), p. 35. We shall have fre- 
quent occasion to refer to this work. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP ly 

public education. Opposed to these are the great ethical 
teachers of the nineteenth century who see the welfare 
of the State in a social organization which permits 
every one, without exception, to develop his intellectual 
powers to the utmost. 

2. In this conflict of opinion It Is useful and neces- 
sary to discuss briefly the question, "What are the prob- 
lems the State has to solve?" A consideration of past 
and present States and of the activity they have dis- 
played shows that the views expressed by Paulsen in his 
Ethics ^ may be accepted as a correct answer to this 
question. He says: "The function of the State is to 
realize the vital interests of the community, first of all 
by protection against foreign and civil enemies, and 
then by action in those fields where the energy of 
the individual Is insufficient or would be opposed to 
the Interests of the community." In this statement the 
question, "What are the vital Interests of the commu- 
nity?" remains unanswered. The reply Is not at all 
easy. Thus much Is certain : a State will be of value 
to the individual so far as his vital Interests are 
Involved In those of the State, or so far as there is 
hope that legitimate agitation may compel State atten- 
tion to them. The State thus appears an Immediate, 
valuable means of promoting his vital Interests. But 
the Interests of the numerous Individuals composing 
the State are at variance. The farmer dlfl^ers from the 



^ Paulsen, System der Ethik, etc., Fifth Edition, Vol. II, p. 527 and, 
at greater length, p. 513. 



i8 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

manufacturer In this respect, the townsman from 
the peasant, the employer from the employed, and the 
churchman from the free-thinker. History teaches us 
that such a conflict of interests may attain to dimen- 
sions which may bring the State to the verge of ruin 
and at the same time endanger the most proper of the 
vital interests of the individual. To prevent this we 
endeavor to constitute the State so that it can insure 
an agreement between conflicting Individual Interests 
by legislation or by arbitration. Our endeavors are 
thus directed toward making the State an eflficlent 
Instrument for carrying out the agreement arrived at. 
In this State, which Is now the object of our civic 
actions, the interests of the community are identical 
with those of the Individual, modified as above. One 
of its functions Is to further and safeguard the adjust- 
ment of conflicting interests and to organize means and 
forces for this purpose. 

How far the State should attempt to solve this prob- 
lem by means of oflficial regulations; how far, as a 
State, It should legislate for the material welfare of Its 
citizens. Is a problem that ethics alone can help to 
solve. The aim of all education Is to produce a society 
consisting, as far as possible, of persons characterized 
by Independence of mind, harmonious development, 
and freedom of action which springs from high princi- 
ples. To reach this end the direct State care for the 
material welfare of the people must decline gradually 
as the growing powers of the citizen render each 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 19 

individual capable of undertaking the task for himself. 
Sufficient room must be left for the play of self-help, 
self-government, and enterprise, so that variety of 
conditions and honorable competition may insure an 
autonomous development. If, in the sense thus indi- 
cated, we declare that self-preservation and care for 
the welfare of the people is the function of the State, 
no considerable opposition will be shown to our 
statement. 

From the point of view of the Individual State, this 
function is mainly a selfish one, but to It social ethics 
adds, to a certain extent, another of an altruistic char- 
acter. We may thus say that, just as it is the function 
of the family to foster the State-idea and to prepare its 
members for State-citizenship, so it is the function of 
the State to promote the "humanity-idea" of world- 
citizenship. But a State which judiciously fulfils its 
selfish functions, already briefly described as self- 
preservation and care for the public welfare, assists 
also the general idea of humanity; because it is only 
by the training of the ideal citizens as we have already 
described them. Inspired with a strong altruism, that 
the selfish function in Its best form can be rendered 
capable of fulfilment. If we educate good State- 
citizens we are also educating good world-citizens; the 
greater the social body and the more varied the bal- 
anced separate interests, the more is the humanity-idea 
necessarily promoted simultaneously with the State- 
Idea. Yet how far a State should exceed its special 



20 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

functions to place its forces at the service of the 
humanity-idea; how far, for example, it should accord 
moral or active support to weaker States, depends upon 
the extent to which the raisons d'etre (of self-preserva- 
tion and public welfare) appear thereby to be 
endangered. The demand that in the Interests of 
humanity a State should disregard its own safety, and 
interfere In every case of injustice, is a premature 
demand In the present state of society. For the rela- 
tions of States to one another are much what one would 
expect in a state of nature, and the idea of a body of 
culture between Individual States Is still something of a 
novelty. The kingdom of humanity, the visionary goal 
of social ethics, will recede to an Infinite distance if the 
States with higher moral development should hazard 
their existence In these circumstances, or be over- 
powered by States of lower moral development that 
have committed the Injustice. These considerations 
should not be lost sight of by those who wish to see the 
trammg of the world-citizen replace that of the State- 
citizen. 

^ These remarks show that the State fulfils its func- 
tions at the present time when it confines its attention 
to Its own preservation and to the welfare of Its mem- 
bers. But If we wish to avoid misunderstandings we 
must subject these views to further analysis. As to 
welfare, we cannot consider this as an end in Itself If 
we take it In the sense of the greatest comfort of all 
citizens; for, as history seriously teaches us, directly 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 21 

this occurs, the self-preservation of the State will be 
endangered. By welfare we must understand that the 
State should endeavor to counteract all influences that 
might weaken it or render it liable to attack, and that 
it should care for the socially and financially weak, and 
should enable them, according to their capabilities and 
character, to take a place in the common struggle for 
the preservation of the State. And by self-preservation 
we must understand not an attempt to maintain equi- 
librium but a condition of development toward ever 
greater perfection. Let it not be objected that this 
conception can have a meaning only so long as the 
State is capable of development. We do not know 
how long a State can maintain this characteristic. The 
German Empire was once in a state of decay, and yet 
it is stronger and more powerful to-day than ever 
before. A State is capable of development as long as 
it believes in its mission and acts according to this 
belief. In this respect analogy with the individual is 
misleading. The statement that the function of self- 
preservation necessarily includes that of continued 
improvement is justified by the presence of a struggle 
for existence among States, from which the most effi- 
cient has the greatest chance of emerging with success. 
3. Having thus defined the functions of a State in 
respect to self-preservation and the promotion of well- 
being, let us consider the further question, "How 
must the modern constitutional State fulfil its func- 
tions?" Now the vital principle of the modern State 



22 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

is the unlimited extension of personal liberty and politi- 
cal rights. It is no longer, as in the eighteenth century, 
the prince "who sees everything, knows everything, 
and does everything" that contributes to the physical 
and intellectual welfare of his people. It is the people 
themselves, who in their own way work out their own 
salvation by means of their rights and liberties, chief 
of which is the right of voting. How far it is justi- 
fiable and reasonable to entrust a people altogether 
devoid of civic training with rights and liberties to such 
an extent is a question open to dispute. In finding an 
answer to this question, how the State should approach 
Its task, we are restricted to the present situation, — a 
situation that can never be materially altered, one 
which, with certain assumptions, the best friends of 
their country cannot wish to see altered. The prin- 
cipal of these assumptions Is that primary education 
should be thorough, even If It must be continued in 
maturer years. For, measured by ethical standards, 
that State is undoubtedly the best which can form the 
most powerful unit while granting the greatest amount 
of personal and political freedom to the individual, the 
family, and the community. The State of the eight- 
eenth century was certainly not more Ideal in this 
respect than that of the nineteenth. 

If, now, the modern State recognize the citizenship 
of each of Its members; If it give the right and impose 
the duty of assisting the State to fulfil Its functions in 
the interests of the community; If, under certain condl- 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 23 

tlons, it be possible for the individual to gain what may 
be a decisive voice in the national affairs, both admin- 
istrative and legislative, — then the answer to our ques- 
tion is near at hand. It is simply this: by giving to 
every one the most extensive education, one that in- 
sures (<«) a knowledge of the functions of the State and 
{b) personal efficiency of the highest degree attainable. 
In other words, the modern State effects its purpose 
in the quickest manner by giving each of its mem- 
bers an education which enables him to understand 
generally the functions of a State, by means of which he 
is able and willing to fill his place in the State organism 
according to the best of his powers. 

4. We must now define more minutely the general 
aim of civic education that we have in mind as regards 
the class of pupils and their ages, that is, the manu- 
facturing population between the ages of fourteen and 
twenty. Here we are not concerned with a theoretical 
Inquiry into the functions of the State, on which a sys- 
tem of social ethics or a general theory of government 
can be formulated. For several reasons this section 
of civic education must be limited to the modest aim of 
explaining, clearly and convincingly, the dependence 
of the special economic and social needs of the pupil 
on the interests of his fellow-citizens and of his native 
land. Among these reasons are the immature state of 
the pupils' minds, which cannot be disregarded; the 
short time available under modern conditions for an 
extensive Intellectual training; the less certain influence 



24 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

on the will which instruction taken alone affords; and 
^ the absolute necessity of providing for an all-round 
professional efficiency, without which civic usefulness 
would be greatly impaired. 

Every theory which goes beyond the intellectual 
capacity of the pupils must be excluded from the cur- 
riculum. Instruction will best follow the lines of his- 
torical development and deal with the conflict of 
interests and its results. It should be planned to suit 
the pupils' trades, and above all to exhibit national 
mterests by means of concrete examples. How this is 
to be done simply will be discussed in detail later. 
^ As a means of insuring personal efficiency, and so of 
enabling a pupil to take that part in society which his 
capacity warrants, the first place must be assigned to a 
training in trade efficiency. This is the conditio sine 
qua non of all civic education. But in the prosecution 
of this object, in the training which inspires love of 
work and results in effectiveness of effort, precisely 
those civic virtues are developed which must be 
regarded as the foundation of all higher moral train- 
ing,— conscientiousness, diligence, perseverance, self- 
restraint, and devotion to a strenuous life. From a 
consideration of the interdependence of individual in- 
terests it may be possible to develop the highest of civic 
virtues,— self-control, justice, and devotion to the inter- 
ests of the community. How far education will be 
helpful here depends upon the extent to which our edu- 
cational arrangements make it possible for the pupil 



I 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 25 

to be actively related to his environment and to apply 
the sympathetic interests we have aroused in him. For 
action is the only foundation of virtue. Thus much 
Aristotle has taught us already. This is also true of, 
the second object which education toward personal 
efficiency puts before us: the training in a sensible, 
hygienic mode of life, which eventually makes the 
pupil a fit subject for military service. Here we shall 
have to provide not only for the discernment neces- 
sary, but also for the possibility of exercising it. 

To sum up, the first aim of education for those 
leaving the primary school is the development of trade 
efficiency and love of work, and with this the develop- 
ment of those elementary virtues which effectiveness of 
effort and love of work immediately call forth, — con- 
scientiousness, diligence, perseverance, responsibility, 
self-restraint, and dedication to a strenuous life. 

In close connection with this the second aim must 
be pursued: to gain an insight into the relations of 
individuals to one another and to the State, to un- 
derstand the laws of health, and to employ the 
knowledge acquired in the exercise of self-control, 
justice, and devotion to duty, and in leading a sen- 
sible life tempered with a strong feeling of personal 
responsibility. 

The first of these aims is part of a technical educa- 
tion; the second is part of a moral and intellectual 
education. But it must be remembered that the first 
aim also has intellectual and moral tendencies of high 



26 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

moment, and that the second, as will be shown later on 
In detail, can be attained only through the first and as 
a continuation of It. 

It is not unusual nowadays to find other educational 
aims put forward, and those especially recommended! 
that bear on science and art. In determining principles 
we cannot favor these claims. First of all one must 
confine his ambitions to what is within his power of , 
attainment, and then numerous scientific and artistic! 
stimuli are sure to manifest themselves along the lines 
we have already indicated. Their further develop-! 
ment must, to a large extent, depend on opportunities 
and Individual talent. If artistic training were a safe 
foundation of civic education, those people would be 
right who wish to see the greater part of the time for 
civic Instruction employed in the artistic training of the 
pupil. "But," says Schiller in his letters on esthetic 
education,^ "we must reflect that In every epoch In his- 
tory when the arts flourished and taste reigned supreme 
mankind was sunk In depravity, that it Is not possible 
to find a single example of esthetic culture, at once 
widespread and advanced, among a people possessed 
of political freedom or civic virtue, of fine manners 
accompanied by genuine morality, or of behavior at 
once refined and sincere." 

Furthermore, we must oppose the view that the aim 
of education Is to be sought exclusively in the purely 

^ Tenth letter, p. 128, in the collection, Cotta's Bibliothek der JVelt- 
Literatur, Vol. 14 of Schiller's complete works. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 27 

technical training for an occupation, a view which re- 
gards efficiency In work as a sure guarantee of civic 
virtues. In this there Is a great danger of encouraging 
selfishness, both professional and personal. A school 
which devotes not a single moment of the day to any 
other interest than that of personal advantage or the 
desire to become an expert worker so as to gain 
the greatest possible advantage over competitors In the 
economic struggle. Is scarcely a suitable nursery of civic 
virtue. On the contrary, one often observes In these 
cases that the attempt to gain expertness in the shortest 
possible time Is apt to result even in serious Injury to 
health. 

Then as to religious obligations, civic education 
considers religion as a means of education and not as 
an end. Religion finds expression In the most different 
forms of creed. Liberty of conscience is one of the 
most important pillars of the State, and a State which 
prescribes a definite aim to civic education In this 
respect finds itself In serious conflict with its citizens. 
On this account we find sectarian Instruction in religion 
excluded from the national schools In many countries 
where religious denominations are numerous, not from 
any Indifference to religion but as a protection to re- 
ligious sensibilities. In the United States of America 
there are no public schools In which religious instruc- 
tion Is given. In England, where lukewarmness on 
religious questions has never been alleged against the 
populace, the Education Act of 1870 says: ''Every 



28 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

school board Is to be conducted under the conditions 
required for public elementary schools, and no religious 
catechism or religious formulary distinctive of any 
particular denomination Is to be taught therein." And 
In another section we read: *'No attendance at any 
place of worship or Sunday school, nor any religious 
instruction, is to be Imposed on a child if his parents 
or guardians object." If religious instruction is to be [ 
given in school it must be taken at the beginning or the 
end of a school session, so that children may be with- 
drawn easily if their parents desire it. "In England," 
writes Von Nostitz,i ''there is comparatively little 
danger, because religious feeling is still alive among the 
people. The non-recognition of the established church 
in the public (council) school and the existence of a 
conscience clause Is not so much a concession to the 
small party of secularists as a concession to the numer- 
ous Influential dissenters who are particularly sensitive 
on sectarian questions. The English system Is not a 
plea for a secular school but one in favor of religious 
views. The majority of English elementary public 
schools take advantage of the arrangements for giving 
religious instruction contained in the Act of 1870. In 
his excellent book. The Educational Systems of Great 
Britain and Ireland, Graham Balfour reports that in 

^ Op. cit., p. 141. The remarks in the text apply to the public ele- 
mentary schools in England and Wales. The voluntary schools, estab- 
lished to preserve distinctive forms of religious teaching, for many 
years accounted for about half the total number of pupils in attendance 
at primary instruction and are still very numtvous.— Translator. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 29 

1894 there were only fifty-seven school-board districts 
in England and Wales where no provision was made 
for religious instruction. This is intelligible to any 
one who knows England well, — a country in which re- 
ligion rightly plays a prominent part in education, but 
where the State is not authorized, in spite of the exist- 
ence of an established church, to prescribe a religious 
aim for all its people. The aim Is fixed by each family 
for itself." 

5. One would have thought that the modern State, 
at any rate in the last half of the nineteenth century, 
would have recognized more clearly the aim we have 
described and the means necessary for attaining it. 
But this is not the case. It Is only since political rela- 
tions at honie have developed in a direction which 
arouses deep anxiety in the prosperity of the Father- 
land that attention has been paid to the problem of the 
civic education of the masses. And It Is only since the 
selfishness of certain wealthy and educated classes has 
placed great obstacles In the way of imperial policy of 
high Importance that the existence of a lacuna In our 
higher schools, as regards civic education, has become 
evident in the highest circles of the Empire. An exam- 
ination of the regulations, statutes, and curricula of 
schools and institutions that deal with the education 
and instruction of the masses, that is, continuation 
schools and technical and monotechnlcal schools, will 
show what peculiar conceptions governments and pri- 
vate societies have formed of this important question. 



30 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

In these schools the lack of any Instruction In civics or 
hygiene strikes the reader at once. Take up any regu- 
lation dealing with any such school In any German 
state, and it will be found that the object of the school 
is either to repeat, to strengthen, or to extend the 
instruction given in the public elementary school, or to 
give a purely specialized training. Our secondary 
pupils leave school without the slightest Interest In civic 
questions and totally Ignorant of the purpose, constitu- 
tion, and functions of the State organism. Such 
ignorance becomes Intelligible only when we remember 
that our secondary schools date their organizations 
from a time when there were no citizens, but only sub- 
jects and rulers. So far, in Germany at least,^ no 
legislator has thought of making use of the school In 
the sense we have Indicated. The new Prussian tech- 
nical schools for the building, machinery, and weaving 
trades, excellently organized as they are from the trade 
aspect, do not contain a single subject of Instruction 
which serves any other purpose than the acquisition of 
technical skill and knowledge, or the promotion of 
trade efficiency. The Industrial art schools of Ger- 
many, which might Influence greatly the taste of the 
people, are almost entirely schools of drawing, model- 
ing, and painting. Nowhere has an attempt been made 
to Introduce, even as a side Issue, any Instruction which 



^ Hamburg Is the first town to demand systematic instruction in civic 
questions in all its schools (since 1908). Of course mere instruction is 
insufficient for all whom the home does not provide with the correspond- 
ing moral will power, but the first step has been taken. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 31 

will direct the attention of the pupil systematically, and 
not merely incidentally, to general interests, instead of 
confining it to his immediate interests, although in all 
the schools mentioned immature mental development 
cannot be put forward as an obstacle. The German 
continuation and technical schools show the same short- 
comings as the trade schools mentioned, even such 
highly developed technical schools as those of Berlin 
and Hamburg, and such well-organized schools as the 
continuation schools of Leipzig. 

The two great European republics, France and 
Switzerland, show a fuller appreciation of this ques- 
tion. Since 1894 Vaterlandskunde has been a subject 
of the curriculum in the Handwerkerschule of Bern. 
In addition to a repetition of geography and history 
the instruction embraces the consideration of com- 
munal, cantonal, and federal finance, of the functions 
of the legislative, administrative, and judicial author- 
ities; a discussion of the rights and duties of the Swiss 
citizen; the productivity of the country, its trade, 
industries, and commercial relations with foreign na- 
tions. Even actual copies of referendum and initiative 
proposals are discussed. In the first year of the course 
one class, of twenty-three pupils, was formed; four 
years later there were eleven classes with three hun- 
dred pupils. Since 1883 the attention given to civic 
education has been even more widespread In France 
than In Sv/Itzerland. Almost everywhere gymnastique, 
as contained In the code for the ecoles primaires 



32 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

siiperieures, Is taught in the trade schools. In addition 
to this, enseignement moral or instruction civique — for 
the most part, be it said, hygiene and manual training 
— is taught in these schools and, locally. In some ele- 

^mentary schools also. Now during the last twenty years 
we have had In Germany plenty of men who pointed 
out this defect of our technical, commercial, and 

I agricultural schools, who demanded that a knowledge 
of law and national economy should be an obliga- 
tory subject of instruction, and who wrote books for 
this purpose. But these books, ^ almost without excep- 
tion, show a great want of insight into the possibilities 
of such instruction. It is a great mistake to imagine 
that the civic Insight of the classes considered will be 
improved by lectures on the constitution or on the fac- 
tory acts, or by a discussion of theories of national 
economy, even if, which is not yet the case, efficient 
instructors are to be found. Instruction must find 
another and more unpretending way of gaining Its 
object, one that can captivate both the disposition and 
the wlll.2 

6. But, above all, we must refrain from forming 
great expectations when Instruction is the only means 
of attaining our object. With pupils of this class, be- 
tween the ages of fourteen and twenty, instruction forms 
but a small part of the task. Other arrangements. 



^ A fairly complete catalogue is given in Pache, Handbuch des 
Dents chen Fortbildungssckulivese?ts, W^ittenberg, 1900 (Her rose), Part 
V, p. 72. 

^ See Chap. V, sec. 6, et seqq. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 33 

to be discussed later, must be made for providing 
the greater part of civic education. It will be well 
to distinguish, at the outset, two stages of civic instruc- 
tion.-' One corresponds to the age of apprenticeship 
and so reaches to the age of seventeen or eighteen, 
during which time compulsory education is predom- 
inant; the other corresponds to the journeyman stage 
and lasts up to the period of military service, and dur- 
ing this time attendance at classes or other means of 
education is left to the pupil's free choice. The more 
thoroughly education is organized during the first 
stage, and the more ready the artisan class is to make 
personal and material sacrifices for the education of 
Its posterity, so much the more will the efficient worker 
make use of the varied educational opportunities which 
are provided for him during the second stage by the 
State, by local authorities, and by private associations. 
Everything depends on the Influence we exert on the 
pupil between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. 
Finally, military service forms a kind of third stage. 
So far as discipline of the will and physical education 
are concerned It Is one stage at present; so far as moral 
education Is concerned this is unfortunately but rarely 
the case.^ When the large social classes have once 
thoroughly comprehended the necessity of civic educa- 
tion, when the purely utilitarian policy of our numer- 
ous technical, Industrial, and agricultural Institutions 



^ Cf. Professor Gruber, Die Prostitution vom Standpunkt der Sozial- 
hygiene^ Vienna, 1900 (Deuticke)j p. 9. 



34 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

has given way to a broader and more patriotic one, 
then will the question of the most complete and profit- 
able treatment of this third stage of civic education 
have received a final answer. 



CHAPTER III 

THE EXTERNAL CONDITIONS 

I. Before we proceed to discuss the principles 
which must be observed in every attempt to make civic 
education practicable under existing conditions of 
society, we must understand the fundamental condi- 
tions which render the civic education of the masses at 
all possible. These may be arranged in two groups, 
which may be called external and internal. The ex- 
ternal comprise (a) conditions of an economic-social 
nature, relating to pay, work, housing conditions, and 
nature of occupation; (b) conditions of a political- 
social nature, viz., any view or measure which assists 
or hinders the aspirations of the efficient; and (c) the 
standard of culture of the masses, in particular that of 
women. 

The internal conditions are chiefly of a psychological 
nature. By them we understand (a) the two great 
instincts of selfishness and altruism; (b) the relation 
between the education of the intellect and the educa- 
tion of the will; and (c) the psychological importance 
of productive work in the whole scheme of education. 

The importance of these internal conditions is not 
very obvious, and opinions as to their range differ 
greatly. But practically there is unanimity as to the 

35 



36 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

influence which the external conditions, particularly 
those in section (^), exert on the education of the 
masses. If these conditions are distinctly unfavorable 
it is of little use for us to launch into extensive schemes. 
Every existing organization is the result of continual 
adaptation to a changing environment. Individual re- 
formers have declared that all existing institutions 
ought to go into the melting pot. If we wish to effect 
a lasting improvement we have no need of the melting 
pot, nor is it advisable to introduce any sudden revolu- 
tionary measures. It is better to trace the numerous 
influences which go to form modern national life and 
endeavor gradually to improve the conditions under 
which they arise. 

2. To discuss the external conditions at length does 
not fall within the scope of our work, and we must 
limit ourselves to a short notice of the more impor- 
tant. If success is to attend our educational efforts 
the desire to learn must be present. Now it is a well- 
established fact that this desire is closely connected 
with the conditions of work and wages. Very long 
hours of work and low wages, even when the work is 
light, cause a complete deterioration — physical, men- 
tal and moral — in the working classes. On the 
other hand, high wages and short hours of work, ex- 
tended over a considerable space of time, bring an in- 
creased desire to learn. Brentano ^ was the first to draw 



^ Brentano, Ueher das Verhdltnis 'von Arheitslohn, Arbeitszeit, und 
Arbeiisleistungf Second Edition, Leipzig, 1893 (Duncker und Humblot). 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 37 

attention to these phenomena in the English textile, 
engineering, and mining trades. His conclusions have 
been repeatedly confirmed by the economic researches 
of W. Roscher, John Rae, and J. Singer, and quite 
recently by the studies of Von Nostitz, while J. Tews 
has endeavored to demonstrate their correctness theo- 
retically. It must not be forgotten, however, that these 
investigators, with the exception of J. Singer — who 
studied the conditions of the hand-loom weavers in 
Bohemia — have dealt with English and American 
skilled factory labor. Hence not only the character of 
the people, but other political-social conditions, which 
we shall discuss later, may have important modifying 
influences. Even if we, with reason, distrust the gen- 
eral conclusion of these extensive observations, as far 
as they apply to unskilled workpeople and easy-going 
races, we must in any case admit that excessive hours 
of work necessarily choke every desire for self- 
improvement. The first care of civic education will 
thus be to support all efforts to restrict the hours of 
work, especially of apprentices, to a reasonable num- 
ber. The Imperial Factory Act in Germany, in general, 
protects the factory worker only between the ages of 
thirteen and sixteen, by fixing his hours of work at 
from six to ten per day. But the older apprentices, 
and the apprentices in unscheduled trades, enjoy no 
such benefit. Here the model Lehrwerkstatten, as 
in France and Switzerland, and properly organized 
obligatory continuation schools, but above all^ trades 



38 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

councils and workers' guilds, can best effect a gradual 
Improvement. 

3. Attempts at civic education are hampered, espe- 
cially In towns, as much by bad housing conditions as 
by long working hours and low wages. Everything 
that the primary school does for moral and physical 
education, everything that apprenticeship under a good 
master, In combination with a good continuation 
school, has been able to do toward the formation of 
character, can be completely undone by bad housing 
conditions. In Germany the two features most pro- 
ductive of evil are the overcrowded home and the 
unsatisfactory sleeping accommodations for the young 
worker. The domestic virtues which are the source of 
civic virtues, viz., love of order, good management, 
and the sense of family unity, do not thrive. Bad 
housing means the loss of all comfort and quiet, and 
is, too, a great Incentive to drink. Public bars are 
nowhere so numerous and so full as In the slums. The 
crowding together of persons of different sexes favors 
sexual Immorality, the feeling of shame Is destroyed, 
adultery Is common, and even bloodshed ceases to be 
regarded as anything unusual.^ 

Wherever housing conditions are bad the attention 
of the civic educator must be directed toward removing 
young people from these surroundings. But beyond 
an energetic Inspection of dwellings and reconstructive 

^Cf. Von Nostitz, op. cit., pp. 634, 635. Report of speech by Lord 
Shaftesbury. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 39 

measures there Is only one effective means at hand, the 
establishment of protective Institutions, viz., homes 
for apprentices and young journeymen, girls' clubs, 
and homes for working girls. ^ 

4. Among the economic-social conditions which 
exert a more powerful influence we attach special im- 
portance to the nature of the young worker's occupa- 
tion. There Is no doubt that those trades which call 
for the greatest Intellectual or technical skill on the 
part of the worker afford the most favorable opportu- 
nities for our educational activity. It is not because 
the personnel is better, but rather because these occu- 
pations arouse more Interest in the national life. This 
interest may often be selfish, but It Is many-sided and 
affords us a good starting-point. In proportion as his 
occupation makes less claim on the intellect of the 
worker, our educative work becomes harder and an 
Increased expenditure on education becomes necessary. 
Those without occupation are most unfavorably situ- 
ated. They lose the benefits both of school and 
occupation, and seldom enjoy a decent family training. 
People of this class are seldom met with In the country, 
but they are to be found In all great towns. In 
the continuation schools of Munich, where 6,233 
pupils were enrolled in 1900, there were 285 boys 



1 Compare the reports by Hennig, Seiffert, Drammer, and Fritsch 
in the publications of the Zentralstelle fiir Arbetter<wohlfahrtseinrich- 
tungen, No. 19, Ninth Congress, April 23-24, 1900, Sees. V, VI, XI, and 
XII. 



40 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

(4.5 per cent) without any occupation. Of the remain- 
ing 5)94^ pupils, 534, or 8.3 per cent of the total, 
belonged to the ranks of unskilled labor. Even a well- 
organized continuation school is almost powerless to 
deal with these two groups, because the main motive 
of all education, and therefore of civic education also — 
the love of creative work — is almost entirely wanting, 
and the school has difficulty in finding any features 
which will rivet the interest of the pupil. Leipzig has 
made a noteworthy experiment by endeavoring to arouse 
an interest in the home.^ This is done by giving Heimat- 
kunde the chief place in the syllabus of the continua- 
tion schools for these pupils. But the work of the 
boys' brigade, or boy scouts, appears better adapted 
for dealing with children of this nomad class.^ 

5. Besides these economic-social conditions there 
are others of a political-social nature which have a far- 
reaching influence on civic education. Of these we 
shall now consider at length two, which we may call 
the monopoly of school and the monopoly of class. 
Nothing Injures the desire to learn so much as want of 
prospects. When hope has been abandoned, no stim- 
ulus to self-Improvement remains. As long as the 
worker Is regarded and treated by the employer as a 



^ In the course of the last ten years it has become more and more 
apparent that there is no effectiveness of organization to be obtained, 
at least in the large towns, by concentrating the instruction of the 
pupils under review round the subject of Heimatkunde. 

^ Cf. Chap. VI, sec. 7. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 41 

drudge, as long as it is considered necessary to prevent, 
or at least to make exceedingly difficult, the progress 
of the able, so long will our educational arrangements 
fail to exercise any attraction, and so long will they 
feed rather than extinguish the revolutionary fire of 
discontent. If, a few years ago, the desire for self- 
improvement was much more noticeable among the 
English than among the German workpeople, and if 
the revolutionary labor party in England now has 
more unfavorable material to work upon than it has in 
Germany, this must certainly be ascribed, among other 
causes, to the circumstance that every efficient worker 
in England finds progress up the ladder possible. A 
large homogeneous mass of discontented people is 
dangerous only when the organization of the nation 
and of society makes a galley-slave even of the most 
efficient. Now, speaking generally, the schools both 
of England and America know neither monopoly nor 
privilege. The quality of the knowledge, not the place 
where it was acquired, is the main consideration. On 
no account would we give up our excellent German 
general and technical schools, which the foreigner may 
well envy us; but a greater freedom in admission to 
the final examination, especially for the numerous 
posts in the civil service, appears to us desirable. 
Thirty years ago Professor Huxley said:^ "Our busi- 
ness is to provide a ladder reaching from the gutter to 
the university, along which every child in the three 

^ Science and Culture, pp. 83 and 83. 



42 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

kingdoms should have the power of climbing as far as 
it Is able to go." And again, "If the nation could pur- 
chase a potential Watt, or Davy, or Faraday at a cost 
of one hundred thousand pounds down he would be 
dirt-cheap at the money." If this be done, we may 
surely hope that the opportunities for learning which 
we create will arouse In the capable workman that in- 
terest In the community which we expect of him. 

It is requiring something superhuman of the work- 
man to expect him to share the Interests of the upper 
classes when. In spite of his ability, he remains forever 
excluded from the social advantages they offer. There 
Is great danger of Increasing the educated proletariat 
by such means. We need to organize our arrange- 
ments for training workmen in such a manner that we 
do not at the outset drive the pupil away from manual 
employment.^ 

6. There Is another cause at work in favor of civic 
education In England — the admission of Intelligent 
workmen to the highest offices of the State. Thomas 
Burt, formerly a miner, rose to be Under-Secretary of 
State. In 1882 one Trade Union leader was ap- 
pointed factory Inspector and another permanent 
correspondent of the Board of Trade. Workmen regu- 
larly sit on royal commissions of inquiry. In 1895 

^ For example, the organization of the monotechnical schools in 
Paris. The question is discussed in greater detail in the author's Die 
genverbliche Erziehung der Deiitschen Jugend, Darmstadt, 1901 (Alex- 
ander Koch). 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 43 

John Burns and Keir Hardie were chosen members of 
the royal commission that dealt with the question of 
the unemployed. A number of workmen have been 
made justices of the peace. In raising the question of 
the reform of the House of Lords, Lord Rosebery 
has even proposed to create peers from the working 
classes. 

7. Finally there is the personal interest of the 
upper classes in the affairs of the laboring population. 
We have seen great industrial districts in northwestern 
Germany in which the rich and educated classes cut 
themselves off entirely from the working classes.^ 
How can any feeling of solidarity arise when thou- 
sands and thousands of people see no interest taken in 
them that does not refer to their output of work, when 
the payment of wages at the end of the week is the 
only link between employers and employed? The atti- 
tude of the Social Democrats in Germany, which is 
distinguished by its want of national and religious feel- 
ing and by its class hatred, makes any understanding 
much harder than it would be in England, where 
millions of workers and the greatest and oldest of 
trade societies are proud of their country and loyal to 
the monarchy, preserving a religious and tolerant 
spirit though they belong to many different religious 
bodies.2 This result is due in no small measure to the 



1 With laudable exceptions; for example, the great dyeing firm, Fr. 
Beyer in Elberfeld, has established most wonderful social agencies. 
- Cf. J. S. Mill, Political Economy, p. 470. 



44 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

more advanced political ripeness, Insight, and coopera- 
tion which the upper classes showed at those critical 
times when the English workman was fighting for an 
existence worthy of a human being. 

Men like Lord Shaftesbury, Carlyle, Owen and the 
Christian Socialists, Maurice, Kingsley, Ludlow, and 
Hughes, by their overpowering earnestness won over 
large numbers of the clerical and learned classes and 
so, directly or indirectly, called into existence many in- 
stitutions which proved to be a strong bond of solidar- 
ity. There is a very fruitful field open to us here, and 
we shall find our efforts successful if the upper classes 
become convinced that social democracy is a social 
development which will best be prevented from degen- 
erating into a dangerous national evil by wisdom and 
good feeling. 

8. These two qualities are above all necessary if 
we wish to impress the masses with the necessity for 
civic education. We must acknowledge the existence 
of a selfishness, shortsightedness, and mental poverty 
which often arouse the most violent opposition from 
townsman and peasant, from manufacturer and mer- 
chant, to any reasonable education of posterity. These 
causes may be attributed to the long-continued neglect 
of the business training of the masses after education 
ceases to be compulsory, and to the severe struggle for 
existence that results from a large increase of popula- 
tion and easier means of communication. Where no 
breach has yet been made in these walls we shall have 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 45 

to be content with the minimum of voluntary sacrifice. 
In this matter great demands immediately call forth 
the most violent opposition. But the first small volun- 
tary effort, which should never be spurned, loosens the 
first stone In the fortifications. Then love, wisdom, 
and devotion on the one side, and habit, growing dis- 
cernment, cooperation, and vanishing distrust on the 
other, will make it more and more possible to find easy 
ways of carrying through our wider educational policy. 
For nine years we have been working on the organiza- 
tion of the continuation schools of Munich. Now 
(1909), when we are discussing their final form, we 
find the most encouraging corroboration of our state- 
ments in the views of employers of the most varied 
trades. The greatest sacrifice the employer is called 
upon to make is to give the apprentice suflicient time at 
reasonable hours to attend the school. This sacrifice 
is now a matter of course. The personal attention of 
the organizer and his assistants, and the sympathetic 
pressure they exert, is of a thousand-fold more benefit 
than all the official codes and regulations put together. 
When the people are thoroughly indifferent they will 
be roused from their apathy not by harangues but by 
disinterested efforts. 

9. One thing we must by no means overlook. The 
education of girls after the age of fourteen — which 
has been almost entirely neglected by the State, the 
local authorities, and private associations — must be 
taken In h^nd as strenuously as the education of boys. 



46 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

and in no small measure as a result of the prominence! 
given to the latter. In the present state of education' 
of the masses the difficulties which selfishness and 
greed, the necessity of earning a living, and stupidity 
give rise to, are probably greater among girls than 
among boys. The civic education of the latter, so far 
as trade efficiency goes, is understood by the majority 
of them; but as a general rule the girl is sent out to 
earn her living earlier and with much less protection 
than the boy. With scrappy teaching, with no prepa- 
ration for her subsequent calling as wife and mother, 
without any comprehension of the position of a man as 
a citizen, she becomes the life-companion of the latter. 
But the family is still the mainstay of the nation and 
will remain so as long as the life of the State is healthy. 
The whole civic education of the boy will give us 
much less anxiety if all girls are trained for their 
duties as wives Kar' i^ox-nv- 

In May, 1908, the second conference of the Zen- 
tralstelle fiir Volkswohlfahrt was held in Berlin. It 
was attended by many men and women from the 
official classes, the educational world, and the general 
public. The results of this conference lead us to 
hope that the day is not far distant when the ma- 
jority of young girls will receive the education they 
most need. 

We must conclude our remarks. They will have 
served their purpose if they have convinced us that the 
value of our educational arrangements, so far as the 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 47 

civic education of the masses is concerned, is greatly 
dependent on a proper consideration of external condi- 
tions, and not on the internal conditions alone, which 
we now proceed to consider. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE INTERNAL CONDITIONS 

I. The final and greatest desire of mankind Is hap- 
piness. Some seek It In material, others In Intellectual 
possessions; some In public honors, others In peace of 
mind; some In personal skill, others In unselfish devo- 
tion to family, friends, and colleagues, to their country, 
or to humanity; some seek it in heaven, others on 
earth. In this sense we may say that egoism, or, as It 
is called, individualism, is the most powerful incentive 
to deliberate action. No normal human being courts 
pain and unhappiness for their own sakes, and orders 
his actions accordingly. We are often misled as to the 
fundamental motives of our conscious, non-spontane- 
ous decisions. We often believe that our actions are 
quite disinterested, and determined entirely by love for 
something lying outside us, and that we place ourselves 
at the service of our neighbors from an overwhelming 
sense of duty; and then a careful introspection reveals 
"self" as the deciding factor, even If It may be only an 
unconscious desire to remain consistent with our prin- 
ciples. Thus we may occasionally seek, and discover, 
the dregs of egoism in deep sympathy, pure love, and 
devoted benevolence. 

48 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 49 

Egoism may be called the innate impulse toward 
self-preservation or, as zoologists put it, the impulse 
to maintain the species. According to the aim given 
to it by education, and to the cultivation of another im- 
pulse, to be considered immediately, egoism may be 
either undisguised selfishness or a cheerful sacrifice of 
self for the welfare of others, even a voluntary death 
for the salvation of one's better self. 

2. But a second soul lives in the human breast — 
altruism. Comte, who introduced the word into ethics, 
understood by it the complete absorption of the person 
in others, the complete surrender of one's own self. In 
this sense a permanent condition of the soul is not pos- 
sible, nor is it, from the standpoint of ethics, desir- 
able.^ But altruism in the sense of a cheerful devotion 
to others, while reserving the power of self-assertion, 
is to be noticed in all men and nations, in every state of 
civilization, and in every religion. 

Not only in the cultured classes of the population 
but also in the uneducated, not only among the rich 
but still more commonly among the poor, not only 
among the pious missionaries of the early Middle 
Ages but in the lower criminal quarters of London we 
find devotion and love, sacrifice and self-denial, as spon- 
taneous and instinctive acts. This readiness for self- 
sacrifice may be regarded as an outgrowth of the instinct 
of the preservation of the genus, which zoologists 



^ Cf. Hoffding, Ethik, edited by Bendizen, Leipzig, 1888 (Fuess), 
pp. 118-120. 



50 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

believe they have established in the animal world, 
in addition to the instinct of the preservation of the 
species. It is Impossible to conceive an adult in whom 
the instinct is completely wanting. History records no 
man so intensely selfish that at no hour of his life has 
such a revelation of the divinity appeared. The most 
favorable conditions for its growth are found amid a 
cheerful contentment, which grows in proportion as our 
perceptions are successful in conceiving our fellow-men 
as beings who feel and think and are of the same con- 
stitution as ourselves. Pity can be felt only by those 
who can place themselves in the position of the person 
to be pitied; the person most affected is one who has 
experienced a similar misfortune, of which he pre- 
serves a vivid mental impression. A small child will 
play merrily and carelessly with the flowers on Its 
mother's coffin; it neither understands nor shares the 
grief of its father or relatives. 

From these considerations we may Infer that the de- 
velopment of this Impulse depends much more strongly 
on the perfecting of our perceptions and conceptions 
than on the desire to preserve the species, which ap- 
pears to be more fundamental and powerful. This 
shows that In proportion as culture enhances our esti- 
mate of the value of man by himself, altruism must 
accordingly Increase. When the higher and better 
educated classes show such a keen Interest In the solu- 
tion of social problems — not merely the masses whose 
altruistic attitude is easily understood — this attitude 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 51 

must be attributed in no small degree to our better con- 
ception of the potentiality of the individual. To have 
prepared the ground for this attitude is doubtless a 
great merit of Christianity, which teaches that all men 
are equal before God and enjoins, "Love thy neighbor 
as thyself." Based on these views, the humanism of 
the eighteenth century was able to establish its theory 
of humanity which made equality of rights, and also of 
duties, appear natural even on earth, and gave to the 
highest of human virtues, justice, a comprehensiveness 
which antiquity never knew. The historical develop- 
ment of altruism affords sufficient hope that the educa- 
tional and civilizing efforts of our own times will be 
given sufficient opportunities of participating in the 
solution of social problems. And this will occur, in 
spite of the fears of those who consider a too liberal 
application of the demands of humanism as a danger 
to society. 

3. Thus theory as well as experience teaches us 
that the actions of mankind are in the main determined 
by two influences. Hunger and love, egoism and altru- 
ism, form the motives of the world. Each may be- 
come a moral or an immoral influence under the action 
of environment and training. Egoism may become 
selfishness or self-assertion; altruism may become sen- 
timentality or self-sacrifice. In the animal world, as 
in the human, the egoistic motive shows itself the 
stronger. But w^hile it is permanent among animals it 
becomes less prominent among men under the influence 



52 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

of a suitable education — at first as a result of disci- 
pline and habit, and then, following only on these, as f 
a result of a ripening intellect. The progressing 
power of comprehending the relations between the 
welfare of the individual and that of the community — 
in other words, of understanding how the fortune of 
the Individual depends on the fortune of the family, of 
members of the same trade or profession, of members 
of the same parish, or of citizens of the same State — 
influences more and more our moral appreciations and 
enables us to recognize that the most valuable motives 
of our actions are precisely those of common occur- 
rence. While. the lower egoistical impulses necessarily 
lose their selfish force with regard to our personal wel- 
fare, the sympathetic impulses simultaneously develop 
and perfect themselves in proportion as our concep- 
tions of sentient fellow-creatures gain In extent and 
strength by active life In the family and among trade 
companions and fellow-citizens. Hence egoism slowly 
and necessarily gives place to altruism among people 
of good moral and mental development, if they are 
actively engaged In common Interests, and striving 
after knowledge not only In the study but also in the 
^'streaming city's central roar." Thus resignation and 
self-assertion form the bond of justice toward them- 
selves and others. But In this process of development 
Importance must unquestionably be attached to the 
regular and simultaneous perfecting of both funda- 
mental motives. Individual political economists teach 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 53 

that consistent egoism {konsequent Egoismus) is really 
altruism. However, they conceive the idea, not in the 
same sense as Comte or Fichte, but in a utilitarian 
sense which cannot be ethically valued, and therefore is 
not economically intelligible.^ Demands such as "The 
taxes on corn should be abolished in order that food 
may be cheaper," or "The workman must be raised to 
a higher level by education and training," gain their 
ethical importance only from the purpose for which 
they are put forward. The utilitarian considers them 
important only because they increase the productive 
capacity of the country, in the first place by the in- 
creased purchasing power of the people, consequent on 
the cheapness of necessaries, and in the second place 
on account of the increased producing power of the 
masses, resulting from their better training. Here we 
have undoubtedly "consistent egoism," which appears 
disguised as altruism, but only disguised; and the 
danger that at some time or other it will cast off its 
disguise is very great. 

4. The ethical fusion of egoism with altruism 
through the refinements of the fundamental motives of 
the soul is, without doubt, in its highest phases auton- 
omous, and necessarily occasioned by the progressive 
development of the intellect. But if only an auton- 
omous education were at our disposal, the prospect of 



^ On the question whether ethics is the foundation of economics the 
reader may consult Hoffding, Leipzig, 1888 (Fuess), p. 183, or Von 
Nostitz, op. cit., pp. 765-768. 



54 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

making It possible to Introduce civic education would 
be very small. For the majority of people an educa- 
tion of this nature Is, from economic and social rea- 
sons, totally impossible, not only during the first 
twenty years of life but during the whole period of ex- 
istence, even if a lack of the necessary Intellectual 
equipment were not an insuperable obstacle. It is for- 
tunate for humanity that high intellectual education by 
itself does not form character. History teaches us 
that enlightenment by itself no more makes men or 
people moral than does belief by Itself. Wherever 
we look we see that no person, least of all the young, 
becomes more diligent, careful, thorough, attentive, or 
self-denying as a result of the most careful exhorta- 
tions and sermons on such subjects as the meaning of 
diligence and Indolence, of care or neglect, of devotion 
and selfishness, unless we take pains to overcome the 
Innate selfish laziness, the germ of all evil, by 
steadily holding him to his work and carefully super- 
vising it; or to lay the foundation for the elementary 
civic virtues by steady, simultaneous exercise of his 
will. The value of our school education, as it is en- 
joyed by the masses, rests essentially less on the culti- 
vation of the field of thought than on the resulting 
training to diligent, conscientious, thorough, well-fin- 
ished work, on the steadily formed habit of uncondi- 
tioned obedience and faithful fulfilment of duty, and 
on the authoritative and continuous introduction to the 
exercise of a readiness to oblige. In fact, the influence 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 55 

of these chief means of education makes itself felt 
strongly in our secondary schools. The discipline of 
our army, and with it a large portion of our national 
education, also depends on it. So also does the educa- 
tion of our country population, after leaving school, in 
the family circle and in trade. The first education of a 
human being in the course of his daily work does not 
follow his own way of thinking, but follows the will 
of some one else and prescribed rules ; and only on the 
basis of this heteronomous education can an auton- 
omous one be developed. 

While work and habit are the best means of over- 
coming our selfishness and indolence, and thus leaving 
the way free for other efforts, especially the altruistic, 
they do more than this; they produce the desire to be 
good and moral. This desire is the fundamental con- 
dition for all higher education. No spiritual teaching 
can be assimilated without it. Character is not to be 
gained by the reading of books or the hearing of ser- 
mons, but by continuous and steadily applied work. 
Our public and private institutions, our curricula and 
time-tables, should be judged quite as much by their 
influence on the will as by their influence on the intel- 
lect. Aristotle drew attention to this when he de- 
manded that the moral side of our social arrangements 
should be judged by the habits it implants in the indi- 
vidual, and asserted that the most important matter 
was how, and how far, they direct the young man's 



56 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

activity into the right path from the beginning.^ 
Therefore conscientious but joyful service, and the 
habit of making a good job of every piece of work, are 
the means by which the hard soil of egoism must be 
cultivated so that it is capable of receiving the seed of 
insight and making it germinate. We thus understand 
the words of Carlyle when, zealous for social educa- 
tion, he exclaims: "The latest gospel in this world is, .j 
know thy work and do it. All true work is sacred; in ]l 
all true work, were it but true hand labor, there is 
something divine" f and also the preacher Solomon 
when he declares, "Wherefore I perceive there is 
nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his 
work, for that is his portion." ^ 

5. It is as a rule a matter of indifference what form 
educative work should take. One condition alone 
appears to be necessary — that the worker should re- 
joice in it. This is most of all the case when the work 
gains the interest of the pupil. It is a matter of indif- 
ference where work disciplines a man, whether at the 
desk or at the easel, at the bench or at the loom, on the 
farm or in the factory, in the production of goods or 
in the exercise of practical charity. For this one 
thing is peculiar to all honest, earnest work: that it 
should exercise the powers of will, which are the bases 
of the most important civic virtues, — diligence, care, 



iHoffding, "The Aristotelian Principle," Ethik, p. 186. 
^Carlyle, Past and Present, Book III, Chaps. 11, 12. 
* Ecclesiastes, iii. 22. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP S7 

conscientiousness, perseverance, attention, honesty, pa- 
tience, self-control, and devotion to a fixed aim beyond 
us. These virtues must later on be fostered by insight 
into the necessity of a moral life, but this Insight can 
only be effective when the germs which it has to bring 
to perfection are already developed. The resolution 
adopted in June, 1900, at the Cologne meeting of the 
association of German teachers — that manual training 
should be abolished in the boys' schools in order that 
the time thus available might be given to intellectual 
training, and so not wasted — was therefore not free 
from objection. This dispute in the movement for the 
reform of secondary schools, as to which of Latin, 
French, or natural sciences should first be introduced 
into the curriculum of the lower classes, also appears, 
from the point of view of character training, to be en- 
tirely beside the mark. The reason why the seven 
great public schools of England, and especially Eton 
and Harrow, have such great value as national institu- 
tions, although compared with German Gymnasien the 
intellectual training is of a much lower standard, is 
that they attach so much importance in their educa- 
tional policy to the training of the will, since, as Pusey 
says, they wish to produce not books but men. And 
the same may be said of the two universities, Oxford 
and Cambridge, with the venerable family traditions 
which have been maintained in their colleges.^ 



^ "The habit of self-reliance and of looking to nothing behind for 
support has developed with us the capacity of individual initiative and 



58 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

The value of sterling work in the civic education of 
the mass of the people gains in prominence when we 
reflect that, for the majority of those leaving the pri- 
mary schools, work must not only provide the principal 
means of educating the will but it also offers almost the 
only point of departure for the further development of 
the intellect and, with it, of all those traits of character 
that cannot properly be developed without insight 
into human life. In the rapidly increasing large 
towns there are hundreds of thousands who leave 
the primary schools and are suddenly admitted 
to a momentous freedom. The gentle restraint of 
a well-ordered family life, with all its good 
suggestions, no longer influences them. Other attrac- 
tions, from all holes and corners, allure the sensuous 
egoism, while both the moral and the intellectual in- 
stincts, which the school has matured, are still too weak 
to resist temptation constantly. How then shall we 
approach the young citizen to develop in him a discern- 
ing altruism? To this question only one answer appears 



of rule in uncivilized surroundings which makes some reflecting Ger- 
mans pause and ask whether all is well with them. They point to our 
great public schools and compare them with their own great secondary 
schools. They are many of them asking to-day whether the German 
Gymnasium, with its faultlessly complete system not only of teaching 
but of molding youth, really compares altogether favorably with our 
unorganized Eton and Harrow, where learning may be loose, but where 
the boys rule themselves as in a small State, and are encouraged by 
their teachers to do so." — R. B. Haldane, The Dedicated Life, Rectorial 
Address to the Students of Edinburgh University (John Murray, 
1907), p. 14. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 59 

to me possible — at his work. I know well enough that 
the large towns contain many who cannot thus be 
approached. But the naturally work-shy boy is very 
much in a minority, thanks to the good primary schools 
in our large towns and thanks also to the nature of the 
child. The overpowering majority have work to do 
and wish to make their work a means of progress. 
Their interest lies in their trade, and almost all have 
to be won over through this interest. Having once in 
this manner won the boy to our side, we possess his 
confidence, and possessing his confidence we can lead 
him morally as well as intellectually. But how far we 
are able to interest him beyond his trade affairs de- 
pends on the success with which we associate his fur- 
ther intellectual training with his trade interests — on 
how far it is possible for us to make him understand 
that his personal aims and objects are essential constit- 
uents of the purposes of society and of the nation. 

Besides the work of his trade there is another kind 
of work that affords the possibility of fascinating a 
boy, and that is the work connected with play and gym- 
nastics. Here, in spite of all that gymnastic societies 
and athletic clubs have done, there is a fruitful field of 
civic education still uncultivated. Excellent means are 
afforded for giving a training in obedience, feeling of 
authority, self-control, sacrifice, physical courage, and 
so forth. But this is not all; one could successfully 
introduce that branch of intellectual training which 
we have appropriated to civic education, namely, a 



I 



60 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

practical and theoretical Insight Into the elements of 
the laws of health. Of course the Indispensable virtues 
of moral courage, moral Initiative, and moral responsi- 
bility are not directly exercised by games or athletics. 
For this purpose other arrangements must be made, of 
which we shall learn later. 

6. In two ways the work of one's occupation thusj 
shows Itself an excellent means of civic training. Bear- 
ing In mind the financial and social conditions of very 
many boys, we may say that It Is the most effective; 
directly, because it forms the basis for the cultivation 
of numerous endowments of will; Indirectly, because 
the Interest taken In it by the pupil is quickest to rivet 
and easiest to extend Into a general interest. How far 
we are In a position to use this means depends more 
upon the Insight which individuals, as well as clubs and 
associations, have into the range of this factor of edu- 
cation than upon the material means that are placed 
at the disposal of educational Institutions. Above all, 
it is not necessary to demand, as Fichte did, a general, 
great, and public national effort. There are thousands 
of disconnected powers and possibilities in the land 
which can be made available for our purpose at a com- 
paratively small outlay. Circumstances are here un- 
doubtedly different from what they are In the public 
primary school, or In a training for the learned profes- 
sions. Institutions In which public management alone Is 
conceivable. Social democracy demands, Indeed, com- 
pulsory education of the citizen for all from birth up 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 6i 

to the age of entrance into public life. But so long as 
education implies a duty as well as a right in a family, 
and so long as we regard the duty as an invaluable 
factor in the teaching of altruism for the teacher him- 
self, so long a good family life continues to be an effec- 
tive means of education, and so long do we consider the 
demand unnecessary. So long again as thousands of 
our fellow-citizens desire, and are able, to perform this 
duty, a general national compulsory education would 
be nothing more than an immense waste of capital for 
an institution which, even in the most favorable cir- 
cumstances, could offer only a very defective substitute 
for the individual education in the family and the 
trade. Societies, trade councils, guilds, gymnastic 
societies, sanitary associations, fire brigades, rescue com- 
mittees, are in themselves valuable expedients for util- 
izing work as a means of education. Everything 
depends on gaining for them the material support and 
favorable attention of the State, the city, and private 
persons, and on directing their efforts to the same 
object by a liberal educational policy. 

7. We shall see presently how this is to come 
about. We should like to utter a word of warning 
against placing too great a value on a premature and 
disconnected introduction of so-called general educa- 
tion, which for long was considered by the nation and 
society as the principal means of civic instruction. We 
do not wish it to be inferred that we are opponents of a 
general education; on the contrary, wc consider it one 



62 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

i 

of the most praiseworthy ends of all education to form 
an independent view of the moral universe. This end 
is attainable by but few mortals. The heteronomousi 
development of a firm will, directed to good purposes" 
by means of discipline and habit, Is for the overwhelm- 
ing majority of men safer and quicker to arrive at than 
the development of a steady view of the world which 
Influences the character automatically. Intelligence, 
indeed, Influences the will, but it does not make the will. 
Even Herbart, who attached so great a value to the 
formation of a self-contained field of thought, points to 
the same conclusions when he says, ''The view that 
instruction can replace the social basis [Bedlngtheit] of 
education Is equivalent to the view that a rushlight can 
replace the sun."^ Beyond all this, the interests of those 
leaving the primary schools are centered, not in a gen- 
eral education, but In the special requirements of their/ 
occupations. It Is here that we must begin, and what- 
ever general education we can afford the pupil so as to 
help him understand his civic position must grow out 
of the cultivation of these Interests. For "the most 
prevailing sentiment Is that with which man views his 
Ideal or practical ends. This sentiment moves him to 
seek the means of accomplishing his purpose, and In 
this way lays the foundation of a firm coordination 
of his whole range of perceptions." 

8. Very little of what we have discussed can be 



1 Herbart, Pddagogische Schriften, sixth edition, edited by E. von 
Sallwiirk, Langensalza, 1896 (Beyer und Sohne), Vol. I, p. 168. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 63 

assimilated by any one under twenty years of age who 
has not yet enjoyed a preeminently Intellectual train- 
ing. His own experience of life can offer nothing that 
will make up for his want of knowledge of the experi- 
ence of others. The best that we can do for the pupil ^ 
is to promote his physical and mental alertness so that 
later on he may easily pick up his book learning; to 
give him an increasing insight Into the value of good 
work; to strengthen his sense of duty; and to repress 
his desire for intemperate Indulgence by an awakening 
pleasure In his work. This pleasure taken in one's 
work Is a pretty regular accompaniment of efficiency: 
the more all-round efficiency guarantees a gradual 
improvement of the conditions of life among the effi- 
cient, the more certain is this pleasure to occur. If, 
therefore, we promote efficiency, we in general promote 
the desire to work, and with It pne_o,Lthe strongest 
moral agencies In the education of mankind. Without 
It, the avenue to the goal of civic education is forever 
closed. With it, the attainment of our comprehensive 
aim may not be completely assured, but it is rendered 
increasingly probable. 






CHAPTER V 

THE SCHOLASTIC EDUCATIVE FORCES 

I. The foregoing considerations lead us to the fol- 
lowing conclusions: At first the strongest motive in 
the deliberate actions of mankind is egoism. In time 
a second permanent motive, called altruism, appears, 
and it affects the actions of mankind whether deliber- 
ate, spontaneous, or habitual. In proportion as the will 
is exercised on behalf of others and as our knowledge 
and experience of human life, its joys and sorrows, 
increase, our egoism becomes purified by education 
and insight, and altruism develops. This is the moral 
force kut' i^ox-^v. The dispute, as old as Aristotle and 
still undecided, whether this altruism is only a con- 
sistent egoism, purified and perfected by increasing 
insight, or only the moral development of a particular 
Instinct, is not a matter for present discussion. Neither 
can we consider whether the two fundamental moral 
principles which indubitably guide every well-bred man, 
namely, those of moral self-assertion and of moral 
self-abnegation, are moral norms a priori or whether 
they are not synthetic results of experience which have 
gained in force with the development of culture. On 
the other hand, there appears to be no doubt that 

64 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 65 

wherever we have to rely on voluntary effort In our edu- 
cational work — for instance, in the education of those 
young persons who have passed the age of compulsory 
attendance — altruism can be developed in only one 
way. We must begin by fixing our attention on the, at 
this stage, more powerful egoism. We must endeavor 
to direct attention to the interests of the community not 
by an isolated cultivation of the intellect, by theory or 
homily, but by everything that promises an improve- 
ment in the standard of comfort for the young man, 
and in the first place an efficient training in his trade 
or profession. 

In this endeavor It Is of prime Importance to gain 
the good will of those societies with which the pupil 
will later on be connected, namely, the voluntary asso- 
ciations of employers and employed. For active 
cooperation in the voluntary exercise of the duty of edu- 
cation gives these associations their best opportunities 
for altruistic action. In this way the teacher Is edu- 
cated simultaneously with his pupils. 

A living Interest in the educational task can be 
aroused only by entrusting the associations of employ- 
ers with some measure of responsibility for the care of 
schools for apprentices, specific rights being given and 
specific duties imposed, and by expecting them to make 
some sacrifice for the good cause. In all societies there 
are Individual members who are naturally favorable to 
these proposals. On them will fall the burden of tak- 
ing the lead in our reforms. Experience teaches us 



66 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

that If the school Is efficiently organized to a good pur- 
pose, employers who at first are somewhat hostile will 
gradually become advocates of its educational policy 
under the force of accomplished facts. 

2. We have therefore indicated the following 
methods of providing a civic education for the masses : 
Public educational opportunities must be provided for 
all pupils leaving the primary school who do not pro- 
ceed to higher schools. These opportunities must 
relate immediately to the occupation of the Individual 
and thus, as far as possible, rivet his attention. 
Whether attendance should be compulsory or not 
depends on so many considerations that It Is Impossible 
to prescribe for all cases. Regarded theoretically, 
optional arrangements of this nature are preferable, 
especially those which are not made by the State but 
result from the action of free societies. But the actual 
state of affairs, as created and modified by the demo- 
cratic, social, and political events of the past century, is 
extremely unfavorable to the theoretical considera- 
tions, which begin by assuming the existence of an 
adult population already cognizant of Its civic duties.^ 

Until these conditions change we must unreserv- 
edly demand {a) that during the first stage of civic 
education — that is, during apprenticeship, — the oppor- 
tunities for education and training must be ample and 
attendance compulsory; {h) that at first the State and 
the local authority must take the Initiative, meet the 



iCf. Chaps. III. and VIII. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 6y 

greater part of the expense, and exercise the whole 
function of supervision; {c) that in the second stage of 
civic education optional classes shall be formed in con- 
nection with the compulsory classes; {d) that in every 
case the cooperation of trade associations in these 
public arrangements must be secured in matters of 
instruction as well as in organization, deliberation, and 
administration. 

3. Little attention has as yet been paid to the last 
of these demands either in Germany or in other coun- 
tries. And yet, according to what we have already 
shown, it is a fundamental demand. It means nothing 
less than a huge extension of all the moral advantages 
which the business of education offers to the educator. 
Karl vom Stein once asserted that participation in pub- 
lic affairs Is the surest way of completing the moral 
and intellectual development of a people. On another 
occasion he remarked that public spirit Is formed only 
by direct participation In public affairs, and care must 
be taken to direct the attention of the whole body of 
the nation to the management of Its own affairs.^ 
These remarks show that one side of the demand put 
forward by us has already received recognition. For 
the greatest concern of any people is the education of 
the rising generation; and, without doubt, among the 
capable masters and older workmen there are many 
unexercised educative forces in addition to the forces 



1 Cf. Klingele, Des Freiherrn vom Stein Grundsdtze und Ansichten, 
Freiburg (Mohr), pp. 71, 72, 75. 



68 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

exercised by those who have made teaching their pro- 
fession. While Stein's remarks point to the Impor- 
tance of our demand as regards the education of the 
teacher himself, a second valuable aspect Is shown by 
the peculiar Influence on the pupil which results from It. 
For many reasons the professional teacher Is indls- 
r pensable in the training of the apprentice. But his i 
relations with the young apprentice are certainly more 
constrained than those of an efficient, skilled workman, 
with whom, later on, the apprentice will have to share 
the burdens and still later the commercial interests of 
the trade. The apprentice now sees the master or 
journeyman, whose rival he will become later, taking 
trouble to develop all the powers which will eventually 
make him a good fellow-workman. He sees the whole 
guild, trade association, factory Institute, taking a lively 
interest in his own self. He sees and feels in the many 
regulations a loyal subordination of the Individual to 
the majority. It would be astonishing if no vigorous 
germs of solidarity were to spring from these rela- 
tions, at least among the most efficient pupils. The 
development of that greater form of public spirit 
which we call love of country Is only possible under 
these conditions. 

An abundant justification for these conclusions is 
shown by a study of the English labor unions and fac- 
tory clubs, whose Important educational Influence has 
been emphasized by many political economists.^ John 



^ Cf. Von Nostltz, op. cit., pp. 741, 742. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 69 

Stuart Mill goes so far as to say: ^'Cooperative asso- 
ciations, by the very process of their success, are a 
course of education in those moral and active qualities 
by which alone success can be either deserved or at- 
tained." ^ But this moral value is developed through 
participation in the educative work of the State. One 
cannot go so far as Euler,^ who, in an otherwise excel- 
lent article, advocates the abolition of the national 
continuation school, and would exclude from the 
apprentices' school all teachers who have not received 
a technical training and place the management of these 
schools entirely in the hands of the guilds. "The edu- 
cation of the apprentice confined to the masters and the 
trade associations" is his watchword. But our masters 
are as a rule incompetent to give any education, above 
all a civic education, and this incompetence we must 
ascribe to centuries of incredible neglect. The labor 
unions are too much taken up with questions of wage- 
adjustment and special aims of a political or ecclesias- 
tical nature, in direct contrast to the older English 
trade unions which not infrequently embodied in their 
articles of association, and consciously followed, aims 
ideal in nature, directed toward the maintenance of the 
State.-^ In all the larger workmen's unions of Germany, 



1 J. S. Mill, Political Economy, Book IV, Chap. VII, sec. 6. 

2 Euler, Reform des Handiverker-, Fach-, und Fortbildungswesens, 
Wiesbaden, 1900 (Pflaum), pp. 9, 15, 33. 

3 Von Nostitz gives references on page 742 of his work to the articles 
of the boilermakers' and shipbuilders' union. See also J. S. Mill, 



70 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

are to be found excellent Individuals whose views are 
not obscured by party interests or wage questions, 
whose sympathies are not confined to their own class, 
and whose energies only require to find the right 
direction for them to exercise a beneficent influence far 
beyond their own Immediate trade circle. I consider 
it one of the noblest tasks of our educational authori- 
ties, national as well as local, to discover these 
individuals; to Inspire them for the purpose of educat- 
ing posterity; to instruct them thoroughly in the mat- 
ter; to explain to them the objects in view; to gain 
through them the support of the unions for these com- 
mon objects; and to assist the unions, when won over, 
with all the means in their power, and then not to 
control them in a narrow-minded manner but allow 
them to develop an increasing independence propor- 
tioned to their moral strength. 

4. An efficient organization of the trade continua- 
tion school so as to meet the needs of various trade 
groups of different sizes Is the cardinal point of our 
earliest civic education. In comparison with the oppos- 
ing domestic, social, and political relations this expe- 
dient may appear Insignificant. The effectiveness of a 
special continuation school, as compared with mono- 
technical training schools and well-appointed technical 



Political Economy, Book IV, Chap. VII, sec. 6: "By the stipulations of 
most of the contracts, even if the association breaks up, the capital 
cannot be divided, but must be devoted entire to some work of benefi- 
cence or of public utility." 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 71 

institutes, may appear to be limited. However this 
may be, the law of the summation of an infinite number 
of indefinitely small positive quantities holds for It. 
These expedients provide for all peoples without excep- 
tion. The cost Is not burdensome, and the projected 
organization encroaches as little as possible on business 
relations. 

If this compulsory continuation school Is to be a valu- 
able educative force in the public organization it must 
extend to the whole time of apprenticeship and must 
apply equally to the unskilled worker and to the casual 
laborer. If it Is to have any educative influence, as 
opposed to the Influences of everyday life, attendance 
must be required for from eight to ten hours a week, 
and that at a time of the day when the pupil's receptive 
powers can profit by the moral and intellectual stimulus 
afforded. If It is to meet the requirements of civic 
education, as well as those of technical and intellectual 
life. It must comprise the following divisions : 

(a) Instruction, both practical and technical, such 
as arises out of work in school workshops, laboratories, 
and school gardens. The subjects taught in this division 
will be practical work, drawing, modeling, knowledge 
of materials and tools, and technical physics and chem- 
istry as required In the trade concerned. Instructors 
must be drawn from the pupils' trade, and the Interest 
of a corresponding trade association must be secured. 

(b) Theoretical instruction of trade importance. 
This must be given in the main by professional teachers 



72 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

and will comprise business correspondence, trade arith- 1 
metic and book-keeping, and, as required, foreign | 
languages, botany, zoology, mineralogy, a general 
course of physics and chemistry, commercial geography, 
and history of art. Instruction In the mother tongue 
will be given In connection with a good school library, 
with the object of Improving taste and giving pleasure 
by continual reference to the best native literature. 1 

(c) Practical civic training, developed on the one 
hand by a methodical organization of the work in (a), 
on the other hand by special arrangements for organiz- 
ing school life on the models of the self-governing 
corporations. Opportunities are afforded by the estab- 
lishment of school savings banks, managed by a 
committee of pupils; self-government, — inviting the 
cooperation of pupils In the maintenance of discipline 
and m the management of the school and class library 
by making them responsible for the books and mate- 
rials, the tidiness of the workshop, classroom, labora- 
tory, and experimental gardens; the holding of social 
entertainments and festivals; the Introduction of clubs 
for athletics, gymnastics, first aid, and fire-brigade 
work. 

(d) Theoretical civic Instruction, to be given by 
the professional teacher. It comprises Biirgerkunde 
(civics) and Lebenskunde (hygiene) and, as regards 
the selection of matter and method, Is In the closest con- 
nection with the practical technical Instruction and the 
other organizations outlined In (c) . 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 73 

Instruction in the compulsory continuation school, 
that Is, In the lower division, must not exhaust the mat- 
ter to be treated. It must be directed toward the 
creation of an abiding desire to attend voluntarily the 
further training given in the senior division, and must 
make the greatest number of pupils alive to the neces- 
sity of this step. 

In the senior division the work will be freer from 
restraint and admit of more variety without entirely dis- 
regarding the four groups of Instruction of the lower 
division. In all the larger towns both divisions must be 
in charge of a superintendent who is fully alive to the 
technical as well as to the civic importance of the work.^ 
The divisions must also be housed In buildings specially 
adapted to their requirements. The senior division will 
then be the meeting place for people's Improvement 
societies, university extension societies, and health lec- 
tures, where, in connection with the whole scheme of 
Instruction, libraries, reading rooms, and collections of 
artistic or technical Importance may be exhibited. 

This then Is a brief description of the complete 
scheme which we suggest for a continuation school 
whose Immediate object Is to give a civic education to 
young people between the ages of fourteen and twenty. 
It Is a natural product of the inner conditions which we 
have already discussed; for It first of all lays hold of 



^ Compare the author's Beobachtungen und Vergleiche iiber geitjerb- 
liche Erziehung ausserhalb Bayern, Munich, 1901 (Carl Gerber), pp. 
232-245. 



74 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

the pupil through his selfish Interests, that Is to say, his 
occupation; teaches him by means of intellectual and 
manual labor; directs his mind to a reasonable civic 
and domestic life by instruction and practical work; 
combines the interests of the individual with the inter- 
ests of the whole, and that by practical instruction and 
Biirgerkunde as well as by the cooperation of social 
unions in the whole work of education; allows the 
greatest possible number of all ranks to take part in 
the work, and thus cultivates in the pupil, and In the 
teacher as well, a feeling of solidarity and altruistic 
inclinations. 

5. It is not our purpose to describe in detail all the 
parts of this school organization. We believe we have 
sufficiently explained and demonstrated its importance 
for the whole scheme of civic education. We have 
now to consider in what manner the theoretical civic 
instruction can make itself effective. For a number of 
years some Instruction of this kind, to which various 
names have been given, has been required. The view 
has even been expressed that it should be introduced 
into the upper classes of the primary school. 

As a matter of fact, France has met this demand since 
1883 by introducing instructions morales et civiques 
Into her primary, technical, and secondary schools. 
But according to the opinions which have reached us, 
the expectations entertained have not been fulfilled, at 
least in the primary school, to any large extent. In 
German continuation schools, with few exceptions, the 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 75 

demands up to the present have passed unheeded. 
Attempts to meet them came to grief for the following 
reasons. The abstract material was too dry, the pupils 
were mentally too immature, the time allotted was In- 
adequate, the teachers were insufficiently trained for 
their task, and there was no genuine conviction that the 
instruction was necessary. Whoever knows the kind of 
pupils attending our compulsory continuation schools 
will further admit that instruction of this kind has to 
cope with a great want of interest, and whoever takes a 
look at the corresponding school literature ^ will all the 
more easily understand the reason. And yet we ought 
to try to arouse by every means, even In the junior divi- 
sion of the continuation school, a lively Interest In these 
questions, so that the senior division, whose aims are 
much farther reaching, will not appeal in vain to pupils 
of experience and greater Intellectual powers. 

We now proceed to Indicate some ways of Instruc- 
tion which appear to offer a better prospect of success 
than those already suggested In existing literature. 
They also proceed from the egoism of the pupil, and In 
the whole instruction of the elementary division they 
continually thwart its Influence. 

One way Is afforded by the history of manufacture, 
especially of the pupil's trade. The majority of trades, 
and In particular those connected with applied art, have 



^ See Pache, op: cit., Part V, pp. 72, 73, 74, 103, 114. The best school- 
book in Germany is I. Lex, Lebens- und Biirgerkunde, Munich, 1905 
(C. Gcrber). 



76 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

a past rich In events and In characteristic personalities. 
The life of the guilds in the Middle Ages, their exclu- 
slveness and community of interests, their prosperity 
and decline, the benefits and disadvantages for the indi- 
vidual members of the trade, the collapse of manu- 
factures after the Thirty Years' War, the gradual 
recovery, the new struggle of the nineteenth century, — 
all these events contain a richness of incident which 
without doubt exercises a powerful attraction on the 
apprentice, even in the exceptional case when the Inter- 
est In the trade Is meager. For history always has an 
absorbing Interest for young people. The teacher has 
abundant opportunities of Introducing striking Inci- 
dents of general history, of sketching the manifold con- 
nection of the Interests of the individual with those of 
the community, of pointing out the fundamental axioms 
of a sound national economy, of discussing the ele- 
ments of the constitution and the legislative bodies, 
so far as these are within the compass of the pupils' 
Intelligence.^ 

A similar method, especially suited for schools In 
large industrial centers. Is afforded by the history of 
the factory worker In the nineteenth century. In dis- 
cussing which emphasis can be laid on the trade the 
pupil has chosen. Here there is room for a textbook 



I 



^ The Zentralstelle fiir Arbeiterwohlfahrtselnrlchtungen organized a 
conference in Munich, May 6-7, 1901. On page 40 of the preliminary 
syllabus of this conference the time-table for the apprentices' continua- 
tion school of the Imperial torpedo factory in Friedrichsort is given. It 
contains provisions for instruction in civics as here advocated. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 77 

similar to the brilliant work of Von Nostitz, from which 
we have so often quoted/ less ambitious Indeed In 
content and extent but marked by the same enthusiasm. 
There are many events which, properly treated, cannot 
fail to produce an effect on the pupil, for example, 
the inspiring spectacle of a courageous struggle full of 
trust in God, patriotism, human joy and suffering, ac- 
tive participation by prominent men, the illuminating 
acts of good-fellowship, the devotion of both clergy 
and laity to the care of the poor and weak, acts of 
self-denial and of perseverance, and withal a continual 
advance, a constant improvement In the lot of the cap- 
able and diligent. Step by step we should meet the 
most burning questions of social life, — protection of 
labor, constitution of trade unions, housing conditions, 
questions relating to the constitution, means of com- 
munication, and many others of a more general ethical 
character. 

A third method directly connected with practical 
instruction Is afforded us by a consideration of mate- 
rials and tools. It Is equally open to all continuation 
schools, whether commercial, industrial, or agricul- 
tural. It arises out of the consideration of raw products, 
the manufacture or sale of which concerns the pupils' 
trade. For example, the civic education In agricultural 
schools would be based on corn or cattle raising, two 
occupations which at once arrest the attention of most 



^Das Aufsteigen des Arbeiterstandes in England, Jena (Fischer). 



78 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

country boys. Corn raising, the conditions of work 
and wages, its progress and importance in the home 
country, suggests the consideration of similar condi- 
tions in other countries, among neighboring nations, 
and the total yield of the earth. The discussion then 
deals with the corn trade and the price of corn, and 
goes on to consider changes of price, and the legal 
and illegal means of effecting them, the advantages and 
disadvantages of high prices for corn, custom duties on 
corn and duties on manufactured articles, the history of 
duties with reference to home conditions, the men who 
played a prominent part in this history, the inter- 
relations of industry and agriculture, the importance of 
Industries in themselves and for the agriculturist, com- 
mercial treaties and the bodies which conclude them, 
and the constitution of the empire and of the states 
comprised In it. 

While the method thus indicated can be applied 
mutatis mutandis to all continuation schools, the fol- 
lowing Is more especially suited for the agricultural 
schools. It begins with private law and discusses the I 
manifold questions of private law as they arise between 
Richard Roe and John Doe and their holdings. It 
passes on to discuss corresponding relations between I 
the home parish and a neighboring parish, between two f 
districts, then between two counties and between con- 
stituent states. Finally the affairs of the empire are 
passed in review. The greater part of the Instruction, 
according to this method, relates to concrete examples 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 79 

and can be limited to them in the advanced lessons. It 
provides the most varied examples of the dependence 
of the Interests of the individual on those of the 
community, of the necessity for common undertakings, 
common burdens, and common duties. But it assumes 
to start with a thorough acquaintance with jurispru- 
dence, and therefore for the present can be introduced 
only in those schools which possess a law lecturer. 

Many other methods may be suggested. To be serv- 
iceable each must possess the following characteristics : 

{a) It must at first pay attention to the egoistic 
trade interests of the pupil and then slowly and uncon- 
strainedly lead to a consideration of the general inter- 
ests of the State, towards which the interests of the 
individual, properly understood, converge. 

{h) It must deal as long as possible with concrete 
cases occurring in the trade concerned, be closely con- 
nected with the Instruction and organization of the 
school, and in every case disregard any scheme that is 
founded on definitions. 

{c) It must keep Itself Independent of politics of 
all kinds and from participation in political agitation, 
whether this Is favorable or Inimical to our views of a 
State's functions. 

{d) It must Introduce naturally striking incidents 
in national history, or characteristic moral person- 
alities. 

An attempt to set up any ethical code or legal sys- 
tem, even to consider anything of the kind. Is sure to 



8o EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

meet with failure at this stage. The same may be said 
of every attempt which focuses instruction on general 
economic ideas. But the last-mentioned methods are 
those which have been principally followed in textbooks 
up to the present day. A great opportunity is here 
presented to men with profound knowledge of law, 
economics, and the history of civilization, and a natur- 
ally methodical cast of mind. If once the interest in 
the constitution of society is awakened by such introduc- 
tory instruction, then an attempt may be made in the 
second stage to coordinate the simple results of the pre- 
vious instruction in a methodical manner. Experience 
will probably show that in this case also the methods 
we have described are the best to follow. 

6. In addition to the knowledge of the community 
of interests of all fellow-citizens, the object we have 
set before us requires a knowledge of hygiene. As 
with civic education proper, this will be arrived at by 
instruction and by direct education. As to instruction 
in hygiene, the subject can be included as **Lebens- 
kunde," in the lessons on ^'Biirgerkunde," or as trade- 
hygiene in the lessons on "Gewerbekunde," that is, in 
the practical classes. Or it may be included in the 
theoretical discussion of health which is practically 
necessary for gymnastic instruction, athletics, and ex- 
cursions. When there is a good foundation of primary 
education, and this may be assumed to be the case in 
most German towns, this section of civic education 
offers no difficulties. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 8i 

The solution of the difficulty consists, on the one 
hand, In applying to a reasonable way of life the con- 
clusions drawn from a carefully considered course of 
natural science ; and on the other, In constant reference 
to the laws of health, already conclusively demon- 
strated, and to their observance, first of all In school, 
then during practical Instruction, and finally at games 
and other forms of exercise. And here we would ear- 
nestly Implore teachers to base all so-called health rules 
on actual knowledge of the scientific laws that underlie 
them. The pupil must not simply believe them; he 
must be convinced of their truth by his own knowledge. 
But Infinitely more effective than all health rules are 
custom, example, and the attention of the teacher to 
matters of health. In all that he undertakes. 

The demands put forward to-day may quite well be 
satisfied to-morrow In all regulations Issued either by 
the State or by the local authority. There Is little rea- 
son for astonishment at the prominence we have given 
to an efficient treatment of hygiene In our curricula 
when we call to mind how the greater part of our popu- 
lation abuses Its physical powers In an Incredibly 
thoughtless manner, how the young workingman treats 
matters of health with no regard to consequences, how 
superstitious the masses are In relying on quacks and 
charlatans, and how entirely Ignorant people remain of 
natural laws which cannot be broken with Impunity. 
The consideration of a complete system of hygiene 
must be deferred until the second stage of our 



82 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

educational organization is reached. Here the people's 
health societies have been able to do much excellent 
work in connection with the advanced technical and 
industrial schools in Germany, as they are able to 
secure the services of skilful and well-trained medical 
men for the purposes of instruction. Activity of this 
kind will be the more fruitful the more skilful the indi- 
vidual teacher is in making his lessons suitable for the 
trade or the vital interests of his audience. 

The civic education of the continuation school ought 
not to be limited to mere teaching. On the contrary, 
teaching by itself, however carefully organized, how- 
ever spiritedly given, can never be a substitute for 
practical civic education. Practical education is the 
fundamental condition that theoretical education may 
be successful. It is almost incredible that such an ele- 
mentary proposition, which has been considered the 
base of all education from the time of Aristotle, should 
require such persistent enunciation. It is almost in- 
credible that teachers and managers should be content 
with having inserted "civic education" In their curric- 
ula, even to-day ( 1910), ten years after the first edition 
of this book, when the cause of civic education has 
gained so many adherents. 

7. How far practical instruction Is able to promote 
civic education will be considered in greater detail 
In the following chapter. We will confine our atten- 
tion for the present to two schemes, already alluded 
to : evening meetings for gymnastics and for social 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 83 

Intercourse. Every one who has devoted himself to 
gymnastics Is aware of the Immense Influence on the dis- 
cipline of the will which systematic gymnastic practice 
affords. Unfortunately there are many difficulties 
attending the compulsory Introduction of such training : 
the widely spread Idea that the pupil gets enough exer- 
cise at his trade, and the lack of time; for the small 
amount of leisure which the apprentice enjoys during 
the day for the purpose of attending continuation 
classes is absolutely necessary for other instruction. In 
France people understand matters better. In most 
technical schools and workshops gymnastic practice Is 
a compulsory subject, it being justly recognized that, 
though the monotonous routine of the workshop implies 
a use of the physical powers, It is far from being an all- 
round physical training which is* well directed and 
orgajGU2;.ed on scientific principles, and that there are 
few better means of training the will In school than by 
gymnastics. For the present we must content ourselves 
with making gymnastic practice and excursions op- 
tional. If arrangements can be made for holding gym- 
nastic classes at the school, and a leading gymnastic 
society can be Induced to undertake control and super- 
vise the Instruction, excellent results will be obtained. 
If the superintendent Is the right man It is not hard 
to Interest small groups of pupils In gymnastics and 
games and to hold one meeting a week In the compul- 
sory continuation school, since the pupils who are keen 
for physical exercise soon attract a number of their 



84 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 



>, 



companions. Proof of this is afforded by those towns 
which have organized gymnastic practice on Sunday 
afternoons in connection with the continuation schools. 
Given that the class leader is a proficient member of a 
gymnastic society, best of all a mechanic or artisan, 
then he will have no difficulty in attracting a large 
number of pupils and retaining them as permanent 
members of his class. From these pupils the gymnastic 
societies will eventually be recruited, and the sequence 
of events will be repeated. This procedure we highly 
approve of, because we think that our gymnastic socie- J 
ties, which draw their members from all classes, are a 
good means of fostering national and civic ideas. We i| 
shall return to this point later. Moreover, the op- 
tional character of the gymnastic lesson does not affect | 
the requirement that attendance at the continuation 
school shall be compulsory. We even consider the 
organization of supplementary optional classes very 
useful in the junior division as a means of selecting the 
proficient. In the numerous communities which suc- 
ceed in organizing a compulsory continuation school 
only when they demand a small amount of time for 
attendance during the day, these optional classes 
become a sine qua non, 

8. A permanent arrangement, at which attendance 
IS optional, Is afforded by the evening entertainments. 
We owe the conception of them to Oskar Pache, the 
well-known director of the Fourth Continuation School 
in Leipzig, a man who has done much for the German 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 85 

continuation school. The principal object of these 
evening meetings Is not entertainment In Itself, but an 
endeavor to direct the justifiable desire for enjoy- 
ment of the manufacturing classes Into nobler paths 
and to support an Important side of national educa- 
tion. The greater part of our apprentices receive In 
their homes no Intellectual stimulus whatever, and 
moral stimulus Is often absent also. Outside their 
trade they have little or no opportunity of forming 
their tastes, and higher pleasures are almost entirely 
denied them. But the necessity of enjoyment is shared 
by every one. If It cannot be directed into noble chan- 
nels It satisfies itself only too readily In obscurer byways. 
It is therefore very unfortunate that our public ar- 
rangements do little or nothing to direct the people's 
desire for enjoyment Into respectable channels. If a 
person Is once accustomed to take his pleasure in drink- 
ing clubs and low music halls, or other equally dis- 
reputable haunts, we shall usually find It difficult to 
Induce him to accept better things. Here we must 
begin with the young people, and two very attractive 
means present themselves at once: the gymnastic 
classes already mentioned, and the evening entertain- 
ments, held every six or eight weeks, such as Pache 
Introduced Into his school. The most opportune time 
for holding them Is afforded by the anniversaries of the 
birth or death of great men, especially of those m 
whom the school Is most Interested, or by the anniver- 
saries of historic events. Proceedings are confined to 



86 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 



^ 



an address on the importance of the event celebrated, 
performances by the pupils, singing, declamations, or 
gymnastics. Masters and parents receive invitations to 
be present. The organization and arrangements for 
such evenings are, with great advantage, entrusted 
gradually to the pupils. The school staff only suggests 
improvements or supplies deficiencies when this is 
obviously needed. The cost of such entertainments is 
small. Beyond a large hall (the gymnasium often suf- 
fices), the performances require a tactful and enthu- 
siastic manager and a school staff ready to support him 
loyally. No payment for the time spent, however 
liberal it may be, can ever insure the devotion, love, 
and sacrifice which such entertainments call for, if they 
are to attain their worthy objects. If other conditions 
are satisfied we have no doubt that here and there 
managers and teachers will be found fit to undertake 
the task, and we are convinced that many undesirable 
occurrences will disappear from the life of the people 
if we succeed in teaching them the rational enjoyment 
of leisure. This will be all the more possible when 
popular entertainment societies, cheap and good 
theaters, and popular concerts continue the task begun, 
as indicated, in the continuation school. 

9. The organization of the continuation school, 
thus outlined, has been in full operation in Munich 
since September, 1906. In seven great central Gewer- 
beschulen and several primary schools there are forty- 
three different technical continuation schools for 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP ^y 

apprentices In skilled trades, with eighty lecture rooms 
and sixty workshops. In twelve different centers of 
the town there are continuation schools for unskilled 
workers, day laborers, errand boys, and boys without 
any occupation. In connection with each technical con- 
tinuation school there Is a trade society, where such 
exists, working In the manner already described. From 
very many of these schools for apprentices schools for 
journeymen have sprung up, which use the same school 
building and the same workshops. In addition to these 
classes for journeymen. Instruction In which Is given In 
the evenings and on Sundays, day schools with and 
without workshops will be necessary for such journey- 
men as desire the advanced training given In the day 
technical school. Here the week's work amounts to 
thIrty-sIx hours and the Instruction Includes commercial, 
technical, and art subjects. In the division for appren- 
tices Instruction will extend over from eight to ten 
hours a week. The greater the claims a trade Imposes 
on the Intelligence and skill of the tradesman the more 
extended the course of Instruction must be. 

In most of these cases Instruction Is given on two 
half-days a week, but not Infrequently the whole of a 
week day Is appropriated. Technical Instruction and 
drawing lessons are given by masters or journeymen, 
or by specially experienced technical teachers; civic 
education and general subjects are In the hands of 
specially trained professional teachers. The teaching 
of science and modern languages is entrusted to 



88 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

graduate teachers. From time to time shorter complete 
courses for masters are held to show them the latest 
improvements, or to exhibit new materials, methods 
of production, or machines. In the autumn of 1908 
the number of pupils enrolled in the compulsory con- 
tinuation classes amounted to seven thousand two 
hundred, the number in the voluntary division for 
journeymen to about two thousand six hundred. The 
ten thousand or more pupils were divided into 
about three hundred classes. The current cost for 
the year 1908 amounted to over one million marks 
(=50,ooo£=$250,ooo), including the annual grant of 
150,000 M (=7,50o£=$37,ooo) for new buildings, so 
that at present the Individual pupil, — apprentice, jour- 
neyman, or master — costs about one hundred marks 
per annum. When the building grant expires the cost 
will be reduced to ninety marks per annum, that is to 
say, about the same amount that a primary pupil costs 
in Munich. Example shows that, at least in the larger 
towns, the organization described Is possible of achieve- 
ment, that the selfish opposition of the masses can be 
overcome, that the cost is moderate, that the time 
demanded for Instruction is possible to afford and suffi- 
cient for elementary needs, that the trade associations 
take a warm Interest In the work, and that suitable 
teaching power Is available.* 



* In Its main features the organization is suited to the economic 
requirements of Munich as an industrial center. In towns with a more 
pronounced manufacturing character the organization may be modified, j 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 89 

10. In the country a similar organization Is possi- 
ble.^ The poverty of many country districts is 
undoubtedly an obstacle ; so also is the lack of suitable 
small local agricultural societies ; but the greatest obsta- 
cle is the still greater lack of business ability and politi- 
cal discernment in the agricultural population. For a 
long time to come very great care must be given to the 
country schools by the State, the provinces, and the 
provincial agricultural schools. As a matter of fact 
almost all German governments have long shown 
themselves exceedingly ready to lend assistance. The 



provided the general principles are observed. Examples of modification 
will be afforded by the garden city, Hellerau, of the Dresden 
Furniture Company; the Slemens-Schuckert factory In Nuremberg; the 
works of Bayer & Company in Elberfeld; those of the General Electric 
Company in Lynn, Massachusetts; the workshops of Hoe & Company in 
New York; and the stores of John Wanamaker in Philadelphia. A 
very Interesting organization, the system of cooperative education, is 
shown at the University of Cincinnati. About thirty-five of the largest 
engineering and electrical firms in Cincinnati and the neighborhood 
agreed in 1906 to send a definite number of apprentices to special day 
classes at the university. Apprentices are classified in couples; while 
one attends the university, the other is at work in the shops. At the 
end of the week the roles are exchanged. The total course under these 
circumstances lasts six years. The great educational advantages thus 
offered will be readily appreciated by the reader. For applications to 
British engineering works see, further, reports in Professor Sadler's 
The Continuation Schools of England and Elsenvhere, and the report on 
the training of the engineer published by W. Clowes & Company for 
the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1906. 

1 See, further, the author's paper read at the meeting of the 
Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft on February 24, 1909, in Berlin. 
This is published in the March number of Die Deutsche Schule and in 
the Yearbook of the Gesellschaft for 1909. 



90 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

agricultural winter schools, the farm and market gar- 
dening schools, and the system of traveling teachers 
have everywhere enjoyed generous support from public 
sources. But up to the present day they devote them- 
selves exclusively to technical training, and influence but 
a small percentage of the agricultural population. On 
the other hand, where the agricultural continuation 
school depends for its existence on the country parish, 
with a few scattered exceptions, nothing of any value 
has been achieved. 

Now the inner conditions for the organization of 
these schools as Institutions giving civic education are 
exactly the same as for the Industrial schools. Above 
all, and more than In any other occupation, allowance 
must be made for the egoism of the country population. 
Most German states have Issued ofliclal Instructions 
with regard to these agricultural schools. In the older 
codes it was usual to find the work of these schools 
limited to a repetition and extension of what was 
taught In the primary school. This has shown Itself to 
be an absolute mistake. The schools had then no 
attraction whatever and were not suited even for much 
more Insignificant purposes than those we have men- 
tioned. The business requirements of the peasant must 
form the foundation of the curriculum, and local cir- 
cumstances must be considered, for example, questions 
relating to arable, meadow, and forest land, care of 
orchards and production of vegetables, the rearing 
of cattle, pigs, and poultry, and bee keeping. The 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 91 

shortcomings of the old school and the fundamental 
requirements of our plan of organization have been 
dealt with in the Prussian bylaw of October 30, 1895. 
But traditional views and obstacles, especially the 
LandesoekonomiekoUegium ^ [Board of Agriculture], 
still hinder the introduction of practical instruction. So 
far as possible some part of the instruction must be 
practical, for the peasant wishes to see concrete results 
as soon as possible. 

Wherever available, the services of a capable local 
farmer, sufficiently remunerated, should be secured for 
practical instruction. This is one of the best ways of 
making the school popular, and it meets our demand 
for an extension of the field of education. The remain- 
ing instruction centers round this work, first of all the 
theory, with German and arithmetic, then the civic 
instruction and health lectures. We have already 
shown, in section 5 of this chapter, how this can be 
managed. The practice of the local fire brigade is an 
excellent substitute for the gymnastic instruction and 
the gymnastic club. It is by no means easy to compre- 
hend why such a prominent and useful society has not 
been employed more for the purposes of civic education, 
although the instruction of August 22, 1882, issued by 
the Hessian government, quite clearly points out the 
possibilities.^ 



^ Cf. Pache, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 45. 
2 Cf. Pache, op. cit.. Vol. II, p. 140. 



92 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

If a community Is not strong enough by itself to sup- 
port a school, neighboring communities can combine 
with It to form a continuation school district, just as 
they do to form a day-school district. Instruction in 
theory, perhaps also In gymnastics. Is given during the 
winter months — from November to February — and 
may claim three or four afternoons a week. The time 
of Instruction Is far from offering the same difficulty 
in the country as it does in the towns. Practical instruc- 
tion, and perhaps some theory, may be taken for the 
rest of the year. A large allotment must be available 
for this purpose, and It may not be so very difficult to 
make a profit out of the venture. Conditions are much 
more favorable here than In the industries, where the 
sale of the articles produced In the workshops may 
affect the returns of the small trader. 

In 1908 Prussia had 3,485 continuation schools with 
51,000 pupils and altogether 291,000 hours of Instruc- 
tion, that Is, 83 per annum for each school. In Bavaria 
the compulsory Sunday schools have existed In the 
country for a century. In 1906 there were 7,065 of 
them with 291,000 pupils and 80 hours of instruction 
annually per school. These schools will become of 
Importance only when the government energetically 
bestirs Itself to reorganize them In the manner we pro- 
pose. Experience has shown that in Prussia also oppo- 
sition to their conversion Into compulsory schools has 
been trifling. In the agricultural schools we must, 
however, insist on attendance being compulsory, because 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 93 

only thereby can we gain the objects we have advocated; 
because also, as a result of intimate personal relations, 
a bad example in the attendance at an optional school 
is much more infectious in country schools than in a 
large town. When local conditions are not at all 
favorable the senior divisions of schools, for pupils 
between the ages of seventeen and twenty, can be trans- 
ferred to the agricultural schools, though to be effective 
the latter are likewise greatly in need of a thorough 
reconstruction. 

1 1. In addition to the continuation schools there are 
a number of better equipped technical schools in Ger- 
many which, with their greater means, can encourage 
civic education, partly in the manner already indicated, 
partly by means of a broad-minded general education. 
This is evident from the prospectus of any of the 
numerous French technical schools — the ecoles Turgot, 
Lavoisier, Colbert, J. B. Say, and Arago in Paris, 
which, starting from the foundation given in the 
primary school, prepare their pupils for direct entrance 
to commerce, manufacture, industry, art, or the higher 
technical schools. In the program of instruction,^ 
which extends to three or four years, the following 
subjects are included: ense'ignement moral, instruction 
civique, hygiene, travail manuel, gymnastique, droit 
usuel, economie politique. Even the most prominent 
manual training schools, such as the ecole Diderot for 

* That is, ecoles primaires superieures. Cf. Rapport sur Vorganisa- 
tion et la situation de I'enseignement primaire, Paris, pp. 380-383. 



94 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

the metal-working trades, or the ecole Estienne for the 
printing trades and allied arts, have included in their 
programs, as obligatory subjects, gymnastics, hygiene, 
and economics, in addition to special instruction in his- 
tory. In Germany, on the other hand, we should have 
great difficulty in finding any school, with similar 
objects, which shows In its organization the same 
Insight into the necessity for civic education. On the 
contrary, the corresponding German schools have been 
established to divert attention from the community and 
to fix It on the egoistic trade Interests, as Is shown in 
the absolute want of every general formative discipline 
like literature or history. We believe it Is sufficient to 
point out this weak spot of our German technical 
schools. The remedy Is easy; In schools with all-day 
instruction the way Is obvious when the will Is exerted. 
12. If we consider the monotechnical day schools 
the matter becomes more difficult. Among the publicly 
provided schools they are the surest, to foster civic 
education In the manufacturing population. But they 
have their disadvantages. They are the costliest of all 
schools. They make It easy for the pupil whose ambi- 
tion Is greater than his capacity to forsake a career in 
which he could succeed for one of greater distinction In 
which he Is almost bound to fail. To regard them, and 
to organize them, simply as Institutions for the encour- 
agement of Industrial efficiency Is a great error. An 
Immeasurably greater insight was shown by Greard 
In February, 1872, when he sent a report to the 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 95 

magistracy of Paris advocating the establishment of 
manual training shops not simply to maintain the world- 
renowned excellence of the Parisian industries but also 
"to prevent the man from disappearing in the appren- 
tice and the citizen in the workman." A year later the 
first manual working shop (I'ecole Diderot) was 
opened as a metal-working school, and within sixteen 
years six more followed, whose yearly budgets, includ- 
ing six training schools for girls, in 1900 accounted 
for not less than one and three-quarter million francs. 
Not a single large town in Germany can offer anything 
to compare with this.^ The manual training shop 
enrols the pupil at the age of fourteen and keeps him 
in strong discipline and good habits until he has com- 
pleted his seventeenth or eighteenth year. Biased 
political influences are thus averted during the most 
dangerous period of development. Industrial training 
is encouraged simultaneously with physical and manual; 
a systematic teaching excludes all thoughtless working. 
Hygiene, gymnastics, athletics. Burger- und Lebens- 
kunde, even literature and history, find sufficient time 
in the weekly time-table of the monotechnical day school. 
Both eye and hand are constantly exercised in artistic 
perception — in fact, all that we are laboriously striving 
to obtain in our compulsory and optional continuation 

^ In forming an estimate of these schools it must be borne in mind 
that there is a large mass of youthful workers between the ages of 
fourteen and eighteen who receive no thorough instruction whatever. 
The remarks in the text apply to a select few. 



96 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

schools finds without difficulty a place of nurture, and 
really occupies it, in many French manual training 
shops. What enormous sums we spend on training for 
the liberal professions, in order to produce not simply 
commonplace people but also men and citizens ! Ought 
not the same object to be followed in the education of 
other members of the community? It is not necessary, 
or still less possible, to give every farmer, shop- 
keeper, and tradesman a public education of this 
sort. It will be enough, for the present, if here and 
there large towns of Germany establish monotechnical 
day schools, so that the physically and intellectually 
ablest may be made good citizens. Those thus edu- 
cated will in turn become educators. These places of 
industrial training will thus form an inexhaustible 
source of influence, which can be preserved from con- 
tamination more easily than any other: one which will 
promote civic as well as business interests. What we 
are spending infinite care and trouble on to-day, the 
widening of the bases of our educational system, will 
become much easier of success when we have once pro- 
duced these pioneers. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRACTICAL WORK IN SCHOOLS 

I. It is singularly noticeable in Germany that 
whenever the school is asked to undertake a new de- 
parture, whether intellectual or moral, the school- 
master immediately sets about his work with oral 
instruction. This was the case with the whole of 
natural science work, and it is so to-day with civic edu- 
cation, although instruction by itself is quite insufficient 
for both of these subjects. This can be explained on 
the one hand by the historical development of the 
German school, and on the other by the less trouble- 
some and cheaper means of arranging the work. Since 
the first appearance of this book the idea of the neces- 
sity and possibility of civic education of the masses by 
means of the continuation school has slowly but surely 
gained ground. But wherever we look we find the new 
apostles recommending only civic instruction, although 
Forster, in his book Schule und Charakter^ has given 
many examples from American and English schools to 
show that teaching and the formation of character are 
two entirely different things. Knowledge of civics is 
not the most pressing need of our schools. The first 
and most pressing need is the exercise of civic virtues. 

97 



98 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

A knowledge of civics can be obtained without the inter- 
vention of a school. There are not only hundreds of 
books which satisfy requirements and are suited to the 
most modest as well as to the most ambitious of intel- 
lects : the organs of all parties do their utmost to sup- 
ply any lack of school instruction in this respect. Civic 
virtues, however, flourish only on the foundation of a 
systematic civic education. No number of books and 
no amount of teaching will ever produce them. Civic 
knowledge may be possessed by the most hardened 
egoist as well as by the most arrant rogue, and civic 
virtues may be found where knowledge of the work 
and working of a State is entirely absent. In the or- 
ganization of the continuation and technical schools 
(and in other institutions also) everything depends on 
insuring a proper grasp of the connections between the 
interests of the individual and those of the State. 
Opportunities will be afforded in the school by a sys- 
tematic introduction to the exercise of self-command, 
justice, and unselfishness under a strong feeling of 
responsibility. 

Our continuation school will become a valuable 
school for civic education only when its organization 
is permeated with the thought that moral education is 
more important than intellectual and that, as has been 
shown in Chapter IV, this moral education can be 
given only by cheerful work in the service of others. 
Only in this way can the pupil recognize that his own 
aims and purposes are essential elements of the aims 



I 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 99 

and purposes of the nation, that is to say, that the well- 
organized State has the greatest possible value for 
him. Only in this way shall we succeed in winning the 
ready and sincere cooperation of the most straight- 
forward members of all pohtical parties, because civic 
education in this sense must be appreciated by all per- 
sons of honorable motives. 

2. In order to make civic education possible the 
two ways indicated in Chapter V, section 4 (^) are at 
our disposal: (a) the proper methodical arrangement 
of practical activity in the school workshops and other 
institutions for intellectual and manual work; (b) the 
organization of school life on the lines of a self- 
governing society. 

Without further controversy every one will allow 
that the workshops and laboratories of our primary 
and continuation schools in Munich are excellent train- 
ing grounds for the simple elementary virtues such as 
exactness, conscientiousness, carefulness, straightfor- 
wardness. All honest work is in itself a school of 
morality, at least so far as moral self-assertion ^ is 
concerned. The most serious of our masters and man- 
agers recognize that an overpowering majority of our 
apprenticeships are nothing less than training grounds 
for these moral qualities. Every one who has ever been 
entrusted with the education of such people knows that 
the juvenile unemployed, or those who prematurely 



^ Cf. H. Schwartz, Dflj sittliche Lehen (ReuterundReinhard), Berlin. 



100 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

find their way Into mechanical or unskilled labor, 
present the greatest difficulties as regards moral 
instruction. The simple virtues of moral self-assertion 
grow only out of right action and that love of the work 
which Is the direct consequence of our systematic train- 
ing to work. 

When the necessary Intellectual aptitude Is to be 
found — for example, In all our higher schools — these 
elementary virtues may be the result of purely Intel- 
lectual work. In these circumstances manual training 
has no advantage over intellectual. If greater Impor- 
tance must be attached by primary and continuation 
schools to manual training this Is abundantly justified 
by the fact that intellectual discipline, If It Is to succeed 
at all, can only assume the severe form which produces 
the virtues mentioned with pupils of maturer growth. 
But these simple virtues are still not civic virtues, or, 
as we may say, the virtues of moral self-assertion are 
in general not those of moral self-denial. They be- 
come so if they are employed In the service of others. 
Herein lies the Invaluable advantage of practical work 
in the school laboratory, school workshop, school 
kitchen, and school garden — that It can take unobtru- 
sively the form of joint-work, an advantage which is 
seldom shared by Intellectual work. As soon as pupils 
have once acquired for themselves the necessary man- 
ual dexterity, which is usually in the second year of the 
course, groups of pupils, at times even whole classes, 
can be formed to execute a piece of work of some 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP loi 

magnitude. Success and failure are then felt by all; joy 
of creation and disappointment of hopes are a joint 
experience. The ambition of the individual must adapt 
itself to the ambition of the class. The performance 
of the individual is not prominent above that of the 
class. The feeling of responsibility for one's work is 
best developed in this manner, a feeling that is so 
important in after life and is so painfully absent In 
Germany, not only in the masses but also among the 
well educated. The Individual learns to subordinate 
himself to others ; he learns to help his weaker and less 
talented companions, and understands for the first time 
that his own interests can, and must, merge Into the 
Interests of the whole body. From this joint-work 
with its well-considered plan and well-fitting order 
spring the civic virtues of devotion and self-control, 
and by means of It the domestic virtues of carefulness, 
conscientiousness, diligence, and perseverance are 
transformed into virtues of altruism. This joint-work 
is the fruitful soil for civic teaching on such subjects as 
the life of a community, Its plan and order, and com- 
mon tasks and duties In the workshop, on the farm, in 
the parish, the county, and the State. This joint- 
work Is the character-forming foundation of civic 
teaching, which, for the majority of pupils, is simply 
thrown away unless the will is simultaneously trained. 
This side of practical work, so far as I can see, has been 
entirely overlooked by the apostles of manual training. 
Yet centuries ago there was a time in Germany 



102 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP . ■'. 

when the masters, not only of one trade but of 
many trades, felt the educative influences of work in 
common. It was the age in which Romanesque and 
Early Gothic cathedrals were built, in which work- 
people and masters combined in the plan of the whole, 
in which almost all the trades of a town united to 
construct those monumental edifices that have gained the 
undivided admiration of our time by the finished unity 
of their construction. If we could but understand the 
eloquent silence of these cathedrals our churches and 
our palaces would once more exert a gentle, harmoni- 
ous, and exalting influence,^ and the civic edifices — 
communes, districts, counties, and States — would benefit 
by the study. Perhaps also those persons would hold 
their peace who, though they gad about as the modern 
apostles of civic education, stigmatize the continuation 
school founded on practical work as an ^'anticipated 
technical school," declare it to be purposeless and im- 
practicable, and look for complete salvation in civic 
instruction. When opposition of this nature springs 
from fear of the expense to be incurred the attitude is 
quite intelligible. But when parishes, from patriotic 
motives, are willing to organize their continuation 
schools so as to be thoroughly effective, the feeling of 
one's own civic responsibility should protect the at- 
tempts from opposition based on empty catchwords. 
3. There are many parishes in the German Empire 



^ See also the report of the Mosely Education Commission, pp. 360- 
375. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 103 

in which such an organization as we have declared 
necessary is impracticable. We allude to the numerous 
county and market towns in which conditions do not 
favor the formation of a complete trade continuation 
school for any single occupation. In these cases we 
must pay more attention to the second method of work 
in common, which we have designated as the organiza- 
tion of school life on the lines of a self-governing 
society. We have already described an organization 
suitable for practical school work in large towns and 
villages with purely agricultural pursuits. With this 
organization our second method can be admirably, and 
with great advantage, connected. In fact, it is indis- 
pensable in the organization of continuation schools in 
small towns and marketplaces. How far the individual 
school can go depends on the personality of those in 
charge. There are many possibilities of forming an 
effective miniature organization, from the joint savings 
bank (in which savings are accumulated for a comxmon 
purpose) to the American school-city of which Forster 
has given a detailed account in his book Schule und 
Charakter. 

4. It is possible that joint savings banks might be 
established at all schools. From 1890 to 1893 I intro- 
duced one such in a class of boys, aged ten to fourteen, 
attending a Gymnasium. A small fine was imposed 
for any act of unintentional carelessness or forgetful- 
ness, with the condition that the tenth fine carried with 
it a period of detention as an additional punishment. 



104 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

One of the pupils, chosen month by month by the class, 
kept the accounts. The sum so raised was applied, by 
a committee of the pupils, to the purchase of material 
to illustrate the botany and zoology lessons. Incident- 
ally it may be noticed that this method of treating 
minor delinquencies had a second educational effect in 
that the causes for complaint decreased when the tenth 
fine hove in sight. Few pupils were ever detained dur- 
ing the year, and only one was kept in twice. In a 
similar manner the director of the trade continuation 
school for upholsterers' apprentices in Munich estab- 
lished, a few years ago, a joint savings bank. In 1905 
a poor but worthy pupil broke a looking-glass while 
removing goods, and had to make good the damage, 
ten marks. From this time onwards every pupil paid 
one pfennig weekly into a common fund which was 
administered by a committee chosen by the class. The 
money collected was employed to assist fellow-pupils 
in case of innocent misfortune. As soon as a claim was 
made the committee met to decide its validity. They 
expressed an opinion on the case to the director, who 
then authorized the treasurer to make the contribution 
and to apply it to the purpose noted. These joint 
school banks (mtitualites scolaires) have been estab- 
lished in the primary schools of Paris since 1882. The 
report on the educational section of the Paris exhibi- 
tion of 1900, page 207, says that the oldest of them is 
to be found in the nineteenth arrondissement, where it 
bears the title Societe Cave after its founder, a junior 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 105 

commercial judge. Although in this case the tender 
age of the pupils excludes the possibility of manage- 
ment by them, the report does not doubt for a moment 
the value of the bank in civic training. La miitualite 
is nothing more than the application to practice of the 
social principle that isolation is a danger. It teaches 
us that our rights are limited by our duties, that a 
divided burden is easier to bear, and that nothing can 
save us from despair except the thought that our suf- 
ferings are not a matter of indifference to others. 
In short, nothing is more fitted than the mutualite 
scolaire to give rise to and maintain in the child a 
desire to save and a sense of obligation.^ 

In 1900 there were banks of this kind in sixteen 
arrondissements, and 24,217 members, with a capital 
of 107,256 francs. 

5. The introduction of the principle of mutual as- 
sistance, the fundamental principle of all healthy self- 
government, is possible in the most varied school 
centers. An application of the principle, which is 
entirely free from all objection, is afforded by the 
establishment of school festivities and excursions, or 
gymnastic displays. In our school system we are too 
much accustomed to look upon pupils as in need of 
guardianship, whereas we all know that the age of dis- 
cretion is only reached after we have slowly loosened 
the bands of discipline and accustomed the pupil to 



^ See also the author's Grundfragen der Schulorganisation, Second 
Edition, Leipzig, 1910 (B. G. Teubner), pp. 73-74. 



io6 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

grasp the reins of self-government continually tighter 
and with set purpose. To produce a moral personality, 
such a one as appraises itself by external standards, a 
school must be a social institute and not merely a fac- 
tory for turning out brilliant individuals. But a social 
institute of any value cannot be maintained if laws and 
police regulations continually bar the way. An attempt 
must be made to make education gradually auton- 
omous in the continuation school for boys between the 
ages of fourteen and eighteen, — not indeed in that con- 
tinuation school which is now in vogue in Germany. 
For in the latter nearly everything is wanting that will 
produce a proper moral spirit in the school, especially 
public opinion in the class. This moral class spirit 
thrives incomparably easier in such class organizations 
as we have introduced Into Munich with their eight 
and ten hours of instruction a week, their work in com- 
mon in workshops and laboratories, their intimate 
connection with masters' associations and readiness of 
masters to help, their uniform and thorough training 
of all pupils of the same trade and, not least of all, 
their introduction to sterling work. Only a school of 
this kind can guarantee that from the beginning a 
strong feeling of solidarity will pervade the class, a 
sentiment which easily expresses itself in a healthy 
public opinion. 

Whether we can entrust our continuation schools 
with self-government of the highest degree, self- 
government in matters of administration and discipline, 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 107 

as according to many reports Is done in English and 
American schools, can be decided only after careful 
experiment. Those schools of England and America 
from which we derive our accounts of the educative 
influences of this final and highest form of the school 
state are either secondary day schools, corresponding 
to the German Gymnaslen and Realschulen, or exclu- 
sively boarding schools. Regarding the latter, we have 
everywhere received, even from reformatory schools, 
excellent accounts of the cooperation of pupils in 
school government. 

6. The intellectual and technical qualities of the 
trade to which the pupils belong determine to a great 
extent whether self-government can be introduced. In 
the continuation schools for commercial apprentices, 
for art and technical students. If anywhere, an attempt 
might be made, as these trades demand higher intel- 
lectual and moral qualities from the apprentice. The 
success of the experiment will however depend on the 
spirit which actuates the staff of these technical contin- 
uation schools, on the length of the course and the 
quality of instruction, and on the appreciation of 
the school which Is developed In the pupil. When the 
school Is not highly appreciated (and this Is the case in 
most German continuation schools), any attempt of 
the nature indicated would Increase difficulties Instead 
of mitigating them. But pupils learn the more to ap- 
preciate the continuation school the more they progress 
In manual, technical, and artistic dexterity. It appears 



io8 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP ">' 

to me a great piece of self-deception to believe that 
this appreciation can be Insured by simple teaching — 
by oral and written work for from two to six hours a 
week. The only reason I can give for this self-decep- 
tion is that the best secondary schools have sometimes 
achieved success with a whole class in this manner. 
Making all allowance for the kind of material with 
which the continuation school has to deal, we must not 
forget that the majority of apprentices seldom hear 
anything in favor of the continuation school, as at 
present constituted, from parents, masters, or journey- 
men, and frequently much that is hostile. Now if the 
continuation school does not meet the justifiably 
egoistic desire of the pupil to become a thoroughly 
efficient workman, if it even deceives him, as frequently 
happens during an apprenticeship, how is any appreci- 
ation of the school to find root? From this point of 
view we are again led to the conclusion that the most 
effective organization is doubtless that which allows 
the whole management of instruction and education to 
grow out of a systematic Introduction to practical 
work. But when at last will Germany recognize this 
conclusion? 

7. Even if It should be impossible to Introduce 
self-government to any extent into the continuation 
school, such is not the case In the well-conducted and 
well-organized day technical Institutes, where Instruc- 
tion, following our proposals, will deal not only with 
technical but also with Intellectual and moral training. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 109 

It Is everywhere to be noted that in all larger schools 
which fulfil a definite object there is in general a strong 
esprit de corps among the pupils. We can make excel- 
lent use of this feeling by founding an old boys' club, 
which will naturally conduct its own affairs. The 
director of the school may be the honorary president, 
and the school buildings may be placed at the disposal 
of members for their meetings. The necessary sub- 
scriptions, increased by voluntary contributions from 
business firms employing former pupils, and supple- 
mented from national and local revenues, would 
furnish means for continuing civic and professional 
Instruction beyond school age. The club could meet 
social requirements by holding evening social meetings. 
It could afford opportunities for physical exercise in 
gymnastic practices and excursions; it could encourage 
public spirit and thrift by forming savings banks; It 
could extend its influence by electing, as extraordinary 
members, the teachers on the staff or others who have 
attained to eminence In allied trades, or as workers 
among young people. Such a club would be a capital 
meeting place for the rising members of a trade who 
wish to remain in touch with their teachers and to in- 
crease the skill and knowledge they have gained at the 
school. In this way it would be a barometer for meas- 
uring the atmosphere of the school. It would be the 
natural source of the young men's associations to 
which contemporary thought has devoted so much at- 
tention. If It is to exercise a greater attraction it 



no EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

would, in addition to the objects already mentioned, 
have to interest itself in the domestic and trade affairs 
of its younger members, especially by maintaining an 
employment bureau for their use. The bureau will be 
especially valuable when the director of the school is 
president of the club. For if the school has won a 
good name by its work, and earned the confidence of 
the trades for which it prepares, the task of placing 
pupils falls naturally on the director, whether an old 
boys' club exist or not. To make use of the office of 
president in this manner is a step which will be doubly 
rewarded. The club becomes attractive even to those 
who are disinclined to give attention to their further 
training, and the expectation of future help influences 
the performances of the pupil during his school career. 
Here, as elsewhere, public spirit eventually brings its 
own reward. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE NON-SCHOLASTIC EDUCATIVE FORCES 

I. In the civic education of young people the prin- 
cipal burden is borne by the school, not because more 
effective means are wanting but because the school in- 
fluences the greatest number. But those who are 
expected to supply the necessary energy — the educa- 
tional authorities, whether national or local — work 
slowly. A talented personality, rich in knowledge, ex- 
perience, and initiative, finds great obstacles in the way 
of his plans of organization, even when he occupies a 
most influential position, and many years must elapse 
before these obstacles are removed. Private enter- 
prise acts in a much quicker manner, especially when 
large pecuniary resources are at the disposal of a man 
of ripe judgment. We have only to point to America, 
where in spite of accusations of a mercenary spirit 
wealthy individuals have shown a public-spirited inter- 
est in education which fills the European with envy and 
astonishment. But our educated middle classes are 
not deficient in understanding or aiding schemes for 
educating the people, and more particularly the young. 
People's training classes, university training classes, 
people's sanitary associations, are proof of the liberal- 
ity, cheerful effort, and unselfishness of the learned 

III 



112 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

classes. Day-homes, apprentices' and shop girls' clubs, 
and young folks' clubs are a proof of the active inter- 
est in social problems taken by an educated middle class 
and by the clergy. But if greater success is to attend 
our efforts at civic education the number of those who 
recognize their social duties, especially among the 
wealthy classes, must be largely increased. For civic 
education only flourishes when the upper classes dis- 
play a civic spirit. Devotion to social problems is not 
a favor that we show, but a duty that is incumbent 
upon us. 

2. The most valuable assistance Is of a personal 
nature, depending not so much on great intellectual 
talent or material wealth as upon a sympathetic dispo- 
sition. An edifying example of this nature is afforded 
by the university settlements in England, above all by 
Toynbee Hall in London.^ Only the deepest misery 
of multitudes, working secretly and destructively In the 
slums of London, could give rise to such a wondrous 
example of human kindness. Here from twenty to 
thirty young men, who are not able to call much their 
own except a good university education, live for 
months, occasionally years, together In a sort of exile 



^ The example of Toynbee Hall has found laudable imitation in 
Hamburg, Here the first settlement was founded in 1901. A second 
speedily followed, then a third, and a semi-colonial settlement. In 1907- 
1908 there were 201 persons engaged in the work of the settlements." 
Leipzig has also made a start recently in the same direction. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 113 

in order to devote themselves personally to the accom- 
plishment of educational aims.^ 

"The spirit in which everything happens is the spirit 
of pure love of one's neighbor and of humanity with- 
out any of that patronage which gives but does not 
take, the spirit of brotherly friendship which is 
friendly because it seeks friendship. It fights against 
the isolation, the forsakenness, and the lost condition 
of the human soul in the great city. The aim and end 
of its endeavors is to awaken the spirit of true citizen- 
ship and genuine humanity and so to strengthen the 
power to live uprightly that the chilling effect of isola- 
tion may be replaced by a consciousness of community. 
Essays and lectures of all kinds, clubs, meetings for 
amusements, must therefore once more unite rich and 
poor. Behind everything there must be a personality, 
for without personal influence there is no lasting suc- 
cess. Neither school nor church, neither charity nor 
act of parliament, can do so much as one friend for 
another — as one man for another." ^ 

3. The question thus arises, how is the disinter- 
ested activity of the German Bildungsvereine to be 
used for purposes of training the young citizen? So 
far as the Volksbildungsvereine are concerned, the 
Munich society has rightly met the situation by the 
foundation of such schools and educational institutions, 



^ English readers have only to be reminded of Robert Elsmere to find 
a more detailed account of the work and spirit of the settlements. 

^ Von Nostitz, op. cit., pp. 211-212. 



114 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP ^ 

for young people exempted from attendance at the 
primary school, as for the present neither State nor 
local authority Is bound to furnish. A large number 
of clubs has already followed this example. In par- 
ticular, the women's societies^ have done good service 
by establishing courses of all kinds for the girls of the 
working classes. There is no doubt that the Volks- 
blldungsverelne, being so thoroughly Independent, can 
be of great service In this manner, especially when 
their schools are organized in the spirit of the prin- 
ciples we have laid down. They can work as pioneers 
of civic education by showing the way to the State and 
the local authority with their model Institutions. 

4. In the course of time one of the most pro- 
ductive spheres of work will be open to university ex- 
tension societies and associations for popular hygiene 
in places where voluntary continuation schools have 
been established for young people between the ages of 
seventeen and twenty. There is urgent need here of 
capable teachers not only of social science and hygiene 
but also of German history, German literature, and 
art. They will find here an audience which from pre- 
vious training and community of professional interests 
is fairly homogeneous, an audience desiring knowledge 
rather than amusement. If their lectures are a constit- 
uent part of the program they will be more successful. 



^ The Lette-Verein and the Pestalozzi-Frobelhaus-Verein in Berlin 
are two model institutions of this nature which have exerted a great 
influence throughout Germany. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 115 

and the work of the lecturers will be much easier and 
more encouraging than it is with a mixed audience 
which demands amusement and information and has 
no common basis of culture. More professional zeal 
must be expected from the teaching body. For these 
purposes we require permanent lecturers, as in Eng- 
land, who are ready to deliver for a moderate fee a 
course, not six or twelve lectures of an hour each, but 
from forty to sixty, spread over a considerable length 
of time, and to treat their subject with sufficient detail. 
We must look for lecturers, like those in England and 
Denmark, who will not vanish into the clouds, like 
deities, at the close of their lectures, but find a pleasure 
in personal intercourse. Then we shall have the fur- 
ther satisfaction of knowing that the artisan is grateful 
and looks up to the thinker with confidence, and we 
shall see that esprit de corps develop which we regard 
as one of the fundamental aims of civic education. 

5. In these senior schools for continuation pupils 
and young mechanics libraries can be formed to illus- 
trate lectures and the course of practical instruction, as 
has been done with such success in the Zeiss-Abbe 
foundation, the Volksheim at Jena. Constant refer- 
ence in lectures to the value of the library, and striking 
quotations from individual volumes, will direct the at- 
tention of the better pupils to the opportunities thus 
afforded them. Our public libraries, as they exist at 
present, are a valuable acquisition, dating from the 
latter part of the last century. But any one who 



ii6 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

closely examines their working will soon discover that 
In using a library other assistance Is necessary than 
that given in the catalogue, and that a library does Its 
best work when used in connection with Bildungs- 
vereine, or continuation schools. As it Is becoming 
more and more the custom to print the best courses of 
lectures in cheap editions,^ It will not be hard for the 
majority of schools to provide their libraries with 
books, models alike In form and content, which offer 
the not Inconsiderable advantage of being closely re- 
lated to the work of education. 

6. The Blldungsvereine we have mentioned will 
not for a long time to come develop an educative Influ- 
ence comparable with what Is possible In the gymnastic 
societies, if the treasury and the local authority grant 
the latter assistance. A systematic course of gymnas- 
tics forms a capital training both of the will and of the 
character. It Is popular with those people to whom 
intellectual work appeals only so far as It bears on 
their future careers. When a club possesses such a 
means of Increasing civic efficiency Its value Is enhanced 
by cooperation In the other educative and moral work 
of the club. For no club formed with a definite pur- 
pose can succeed without incidentally giving an educa- 
tion In unselfishness, self-denial, subordination, and 
cheerful cooperation. Now, according to their consti- 
tutions, the German gymnastic societies are centers for 



^ For example, the collection, "Natur und Geisteswelt," B. G, 
Teubner, Leipzig. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 117 

cultivating German patriotism, and membership Is 
open to young people at an early age. Remote from 
party strife, they have for seventy years or more made 
''Love of the Fatherland" their motto. At great per- 
sonal sacrifice, often without any public assistance, they 
have established themselves In all districts of Ger- 
many. In 1907 they had 809,000 adult members and 
almost 200,000 associates and junior members, en- 
rolled In 7,787 clubs, with centers In 6,513 towns and 
villages. Ought we not to make every effort to utilize 
this organization further for the purposes of civic edu- 
cation? We have already mentioned the first and 
perhaps the most Important way to this end:^ the 
introduction of gymnastics, gymnastic displays, excur- 
sions — at first with optional attendance — In all our 
compulsory continuation schools, where efficient teach- 
ers from the gymnastic societies (preferably of the 
artisan class) will be responsible for Instruction. 

In all public gymnastic displays and excursions our 
pupils should be represented. As an acknowledg- 
ment of the services rendered by the gymnastic soci- 
eties assistance should be given them from the national 
and the local treasuries, and the educated classes 
should also assist by becoming contributing members. 
For the maxim holds good of these societies that their 
tone is determined by the active participation of the 
educated members. Thus we shall succeed in finding 
support for the gymnastic societies in three ways: by 



^ Cf. Chap. V, sec. 7. 



ii8 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

introducing young men who would benefit by attend- 
ance, by inducing educated people to become subscrib- 
ing members, and by obtaining the moral and material 
support of the public authorities. This support is all 
the more necessary because the experience of large 
towns shows that in a society struggling with financial 
difficulties the members loyal to the constitution soon 
lose their lead and the society becomes the prey of 
political parties. The latter consider an education in 
the politics of the party, or of the caste, much more 
important than an introduction to good citizenship, 
and are thoroughly conscious of the educative 
influences and corporate instincts which characterize 
gymnastic societies. If we succeed in keeping the 
societies alive, large, and powerful there is no doubt 
that the majority of them will redouble their efforts as 
an acknowledgment of the support afforded and from 
a desire to fulfil the tasks allotted. Every manager of 
a continuation school will at once acknowledge the edu- 
cative value of voluntary membership in a good gym- 
nastic society for his pupils. The whole bearing of the 
pupil, his activity, his distinctive response to internal 
and external discipline, bear witness to the healthy in- 
fluence. If any one of our readers has not yet observed 
this for himself we heartily recommend the study to 
him. 

7. In Great Britain, where the value of physical 
exercise is more highly appreciated by the public than 
in Germany, the interest manifested by young people 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 119 

In the corporate development of their physical powers 
has been employed In a remarkable manner to train 
those who would resist every other form of education. 
We allude to the boys' brigades, a thoroughly British 
Institution which Is not to be confounded with the 
French school cadet corps, an organization not alto- 
gether free from objection. In 1883 Sir William 
Smith founded a boys' company In Glasgow, the suc- 
cess of which led to speedy Imitation. He proceeded 
on the supposition that young boys need discipline, and 
that the discipline represented by a military uniform is 
the simplest and most readily Intelligible to the street 
Arabs of a large town. In 1900 there were eight 
hundred "companies" In Great Britain with three thou- 
sand "officers" and thirty-three thousand "soldiers." 
The greater part of the "soldiers" are errand boys and 
newspaper sellers. The officers belong to the upper 
classes; churchmen like the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
noblemen like the Earl of Aberdeen and Lord Kln- 
naird, and field marshals like Lords Wolseley and 
Roberts,, have been presidents. As a rule a company, 
which may number from thirty to a hundred boys, drills 
once a week. On parade the exercises are carried 
out In strict military fashion. At every drill the 
evening's work begins with an address and ends with 
a hymn. But the military character of the proceedings 
Is a means, not an end. The aim Is both religious and 
moral (the companies are connected with some church 
by their regulations). How far this Ideal Is reached 



120 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

depends upon the officers, whose sacrifice of time and 
trouble Is more valuable than their contributions, about 
50o£ In all per annum. In the companies clubs are 
formed for music, football, gymnastics, cricket, and 
swimming. First aid to the Injured Is taught, and In 
1897 over a thousand boys passed an examination In 
it. The boys who join the company are thus enrolled 
for an education which otherwise they would have 
abhorred. "It Is obvious," writes Von Nostitz, "what 
a blessing the Boys' Brigade has been to thousands of 
young people. The less didactic and sermonizing the 
officers are, the more they appear as friends and 
brothers ready to lend a helping hand to others, then 
the greater Is their influence. A great advance, con- 
firmed by many reports, has already been made, as the 
members of the lower classes learn once more to show 
respect and affection for the members of the upper 
classes and to consult them In the difficulties and temp- 
tations of life." ^ So far as civic education is con- 
cerned, the conditions obtaining In our German 
gymnastic societies are as favorable as those of the 
Boys' Brigade. They unite all social classes and sub- 
ject the workman as well as the employer, the poor as 
well as the rich, to the same discipline. Moreover, 
many able and educated men are ready to make sacrifice 
of time and energy on their behalf. Many thousands 
of boys are already entrusted to the care of the 
gymnastic societies. It needs only the restoration of 



^ Von Nostitz, op. cit., p. 223. 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 121 

the connection we have Indicated and a generous sup- 
port, by way of granting the use of grounds and build- 
ings, to extend the educative work of these societies 
and to make them more productive. A considerable 
part of the patriotic spirit which animates people to- 
day is due to these societies. At a time when the 
national feeling was moribund they maintained it to 
the utmost. We are therefore fully convinced that if 
Important problems of civic education should be 
offered to them they are certain to find a solution. 

8. Where, as in the country, there is no gymnastic 
society, use may be made of the first-aid societies and 
the fire brigades. Among the men who in this manner 
do a great public service there will everywhere be 
found some who are fitted to conduct companies of 
young people and to inspire them with their own enthu- 
siasm. In this manner it will be possible, side by side 
with the continuation school, to spread a further net- 
work of forces over the whole country, which no act 
of parliament could ever bring into existence. The re- 
sults of this new system of forces may. In favorable 
circumstances, be even greater than those shown by 
any form of school Instruction. For humanity and 
zeal, public spirit and liberality, develop quickest under 
the attraction of a living example, when opportunities 
for moral action are present In abundance. With this 
magic wand we draw civic virtue from every youthful 
heart that we touch. 

9. So far we have mentioned only casually the 



122 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

assured success attending the efforts of these societies 
to Improve the capacity of our people for defense. To 
reach this part of our educational aim we must take 
into serious consideration the clubs mentioned. We do 
not allude so much to the all-round training of physical 
powers, which results from a systematic course of 
gymnastics, as to a training in self-control, persever- 
ance, determination, and courage. Courage and deter- 
mination are aptitudes of the will. The best history 
teaching which kindles the enthusiasm of a boy for the 
deeds of his ancestors will never produce these apti- 
tudes if the boys have no opportunity to exercise their 
gifts. And what opportunities can be more favorable 
or less dangerous at this age than those afforded by a 
carefully planned course of gymnastic exercises? 
There is neither occasion nor necessity to discuss the 
proposition further, as we dealt with the importance of 
the education of the will and Its connection with the 
education of the intellect In Chapter IV. A reader 
wishing to pursue the subject further should consult 
Konrad Koch's excellent work,i which deals exhaust- 
ively with the subject. 

The value of courage and decision, perseverance 
and self-control, is not to be determined only from the 
part they play in making a people capable of self- 
defense. These qualities are not necessary in war 
alone. Without them we should never attain to high 
success in any walk of life. It is not to be expected 



^ Die Erziehung zum Mute, Berlin, 1900 (Gartner). 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 123 

that the courage and self-control and determination 
which physical exercise produces would immediately 
make their appearance where moral questions arise. 
That is the great fallacy which is so often accepted 
nowadays. But where physical exercise has prepared 
the way in the education of the will, then the indis- 
pensable moral exercises which self-government and 
practical work offer us will find a cast of mind much 
readier to receive impressions. 

10. If we pass in review the chief points of the 
system of civic education which we have already devel- 
oped we see that it consists in strengthening the numer- 
ous educative forces of all kinds, in directing them to 
the same set purpose, and, if possible, in combining 
them into a firm system. We hope, moreover, that we 
have shown that such efforts can be successful without 
demanding too great sacrifices. For such a tangled 
system of forces printed regulations and systems are of 
secondary importance. What really matters is the 
spirit in which they are applied. To vivify and to 
maintain this spirit, to rouse it when absent, to conduct 
it by a thousand arms and channels to the lowest and 
most unassuming of continuation schools Is, in our 
opinion, a task which it were best to entrust to a small 
commission from the best men of the empire, who 
might act as an, imperial council of education. The 
functions of such a council need not be either legisla- 
tive, administrative, or disciplinary. Just as the acad- 
emies were formerly established as Independent bodies 



124 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 



1 



to promote the study of science, so may the council of 
education be the patron and guardian of the many- 
sided work of civic education. Its members would be 
men of proved ability in technology, agriculture, art, 
science, and military matters — men whose acquaintance 
with educational questions is shown by their talent, 
position, and Inclination — men, that Is, who regard 
their office as an honorable distinction. The council, 
once formed, could fill vacancies by cooption at all 
times. Special questions might be referred to extraor- 
dinary committees chosen from the highest educational 
authorities of the empire. The work of the council 
would not be to create any organization but to make 
suggestions, to indicate clearly prevailing views, and to 
preserve a unity of spirit In a variety of form. For 
this purpose it might, like the academies, meet In sec- 
tions. It would establish Its claim to consideration 
partly by the moral power of its prestige, partly by 
admitting extraordinary members drawn from the 
highest school authorities. Thus it might gradually 
become the pilot of a uniform national educational 
policy. At present no other means of preparing the 
way for such an educational policy is apparent. To 
form an imperial education office with great adminis- 
trative powers appears neither possible nor desirable : 
not possible, because each Individual state of the 
empire would strongly desire to preserve the freedom 
of its own education; not desirable, because this 
very freedom is a valuable source of experiment and 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 125 

suggestion. It would be the duty of the ordinary mem- 
bers of the council to preserve unity of purpose in the 
midst of a variety of individual organizations, while 
the extraordinary members would supply a constant 
stimulus by making representations on behalf of the 
states electing them. The separate local authorities 
can be trusted to take excellent care of the schools 
committed to their charge, but when dealing with the 
policy for these schools they are sure to exhibit more 
or less prejudiced views, so that they entirely lose sight 
of the total effect to which their efforts should be sub- 
servient. This was plainly shown in our technical and 
agricultural schools and can be frequently noticed else- 
where. The interests of different groups of schools 
are frequently In conflict, and if one group obtains an 
advantage it Is often at the expense of another. When 
the professional, administrative, and scientific qualifi- 
cations of Its members are beyond dispute an Imperial 
council of education will be recognized as free from 
these prejudices. It can then prevent unfortunate oc- 
currences, for It can deal with events in the Impartial 
spirit which is absolutely necessary for the success of a 
broad-minded educational policy.^ 



^ A consultative committee for England and Wales was establish sd 
by the Board of Education Act of 1899, 62 and 63 Vict., Ch. 33, sec. 4. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CONCLUDING REMARKS 

I. Any one who has followed our remarks with 
attention will see that they all point to the conclusion 
with which Schiller terminates the eighth of his letters 
on esthetic education: 

"Any training of the intellect deserves attention 
only so far as it rests on the character — in a manner it 
proceeds from the character, because the way to the 
head is opened only through the heart. A cultivation 
of the powers of sensibility is thus the most pressing 
need of our time, not simply because it is a means 
of making an improved intelligence useful in life, 
but because it really leads to an improvement of the 
intelligence." 

To awaken this power of sensibility in our young 
people, and to stimulate it so that it may preserve har- 
mony and variety as much as possible, will be the best 
we are capable of. By following the paths we propose 
the young man will be furnished, according to his 
capacity, with information and knowledge. But the 
most valuable gift we bestow on him is not the equip- 
ment for civic life that is thus furnished. Our work of 
education will be immeasurably more valuable if we 
succeed in arousing in him the feeling that he ought to 

126 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 127 

be an active member of society, a feeling that has not 
yet been inspired in the primary school, because both 
maturity of thought and contact with public life are 
wanting. The feeling once excited will remain with 
him as a stimulus to the end of his days, spurring him 
on to acquire knowledge and to develop his character, 
and to appease the ever-increasing desire which has 
been kindled by our early efforts. 

2. The work, however, is both difficult and of 
great magnitude when the pupil is not completely en- 
trusted to us — when the tangled conditions of our 
modern, social, and economic existence often upset the 
best of our intentions and the most carefully conceived 
of our plans. In the struggle for their daily bread 
thousands of families must make a compromise be- 
tween the duty of feeding their children and the duty of 
educating them. Thousands more completely neglect 
the duty of educating them. It sometimes seems as if 
it would be best to follow Fichte and let the State take 
over the whole task of education. But without consid- 
ering the objection that the work of all young people 
between the ages of fourteen and eighteen cannot sud- 
denly be withdrawn from the active life of a single 
State, it would indeed be a serious matter to strengthen 
the egoism of hundreds of families by taking away 
from them one of the most sacred of their duties and 
the very best means that remains for the education of 
the adult himself. 

3. But all men cannot be educated to the same extent. 



128 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

As there are differences of intellectual capacity, so 
there are differences of will and temperament. We 
see scholars with little will power, sensitive, effeminate 
temperaments with slender intellects, unteachable, pig- 
headed fellows with cold, savage wills. Our educa- 
tional efforts will be especially liable to be doomed to 
disappointment in the case of those boys who have 
been thrust into an unskilled trade by want of brain 
power or by social necessity. We must be contented, 
meanwhile, if our efforts make the way easier for the 
average capable boy to acquire that proficiency which 
a State founded on principles of freedom must demand 
from its citizens. If only the majority of citizens are 
properly inspired the others must be restrained by legal 
measures or by force. 

4. We must not forget that the development, or 

I rather the maintenance, of a healthy State is by no 
means guaranteed when we have provided only for 

. good educational arrangements. This is a necessary 
but not a sufficient condition. The maintenance of the 
' State is conditioned by a number of financial and social 
relations — the very educational system of a State is 
more or less a reflection of the views, arising out of 
these relations, of those who have the power to fash- 
ion it. If the dream of the Social Democrats' ideal 
state is ever fulfilled, then, in spite of a working day 
reduced at a stroke from eight to six hours, millions of 
families will be thrust out of the work of education, 
and on the ruins of the old altars of education will 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 129 

arise the modern educational barracks of the nation. 
Will these maintain the ideal State or assist its devel- 
opment? In England, where the Manchester school 
with its laisser faire, laisser passer controlled all power 
and influence for more than half a century, both the 
character and the teaching of the schools were until 
quite recently subject to a free trade regime. A more 
incomplete educational system was not to be found in 
any thriving country in Europe. But the English have 
become more and more conscious of the necessity of 
giving up these views. The establishment of schools 
of all kinds, at least of such schools as affect the 
masses, is becoming more and more a national affair. 
At the present moment a proposal lies before the Eng- 
lish parliament to make attendance at the continuation 
schools compulsory for all boys and girls in England 
and Wales between the ages of fourteen and seven- 
teen.^ And this, though attendance at the public 
primary school has been compulsory since 1870 only. 



^ The bill presented (March 16, 1909) bore the following preamble: 
"The object of this bill is to make school attendance compulsory for all 
children not exceeding fourteen years of age, and also to make attend- 
ance at day continuation schools compulsory for all children whose age 
exceeds fourteen' but does not exceed seventeen years, who are not other- 
wise being systematically educated. The minimum attendance demanded 
at continuation schools is fixed at six hours per week, and both parents 
and employers are placed under penalties to secure the due attendance 
of the continuation scholars for whom they are responsible. No fees 
are to be charged. Local authorities are allowed to coopt local em- 
ployers for the purposes of the administration of the measure. The 
system of continuation schools, which this bill seeks to enact, is prac- 
tically the same as that which is in successful operation in Munich." 



130 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

On the other hand, France introduced in 1883 a national 
system of education, in the opinion of its authors ex- 
cellently conceived. This system is now maintained at 
great cost, and efforts are being made to extend it. 
But this has not prevented the simultaneous establish- 
ment of a powerful school system by the churches 
which has developed in such a manner that the national 
and the church systems have practically killed all pri- 
vate enterprise among the laity. Has this been a 
blessing to the civic education of the French? Did not 
the State think it necessary to close all the church 
schools in order to maintain the constitution? 

It is far from our purpose to question the necessity 
of good rival educational arrangements. What we 
seek to make plain is that the health of the State is 
molded by many forces, that the best system of educa- 
tion is not devoid of shortcomings, and that therefore 
no complete system will ever be permanent for any 
length of time. 

5. Above all, it is a great mistake to imagine that 
educational arrangements can be made for certain 
classes of the people without taking into account the re- 
mainder. Nothing is so expensive, or such a complete 
fool's paradise, as the want of a broad-based edu- 
cational policy. This is a fruitful source of our mis- 
takes. Some people are to-day tinkering the grammar 
schools, others the technical, others again the primary 
schools, while still others try their hands on the training 
colleges. The secondary schools are organized on a 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 131 

foundation of pure intellectualism and idealism. On 
the other hand, the form given to the technical schools 
is purely utilitarian. It is completely forgotten that 
man does not live by bread alone and that his utility 
is not to be measured only by skill in drawing, calculat- 
ing, planing, chiseling. In all German states excellent 
schools have existed for a long time for the learned 
and the higher technical professions. Within the last 
ten or twenty years we have become conscious that the 
immense mass of workmen and farmers absolutely 
requires a further education beyond what is provided 
for them in the primary school. We are only just be- 
ginning to understand that the education of women 
has been almost entirely overlooked. Every care is 
bestowed on the public schools which are maintained 
by the State and by the local authority, but there are 
thousands of private schools without strict State 
supervision, and in many cases there is a dislike to 
impose it. 

6. Neighboring States and international communi- 
cations may assist or hinder our attempts at civic 
education. This may result directly from immigra- 
tion, from literary Intercourse, or from exercise of arts; 
Indirectly, from economical and political relations. But 
in all these cases we are almost entirely helpless in the 
matter. Just as in the thirteenth century French cus- 
toms, art, and literature gained the most advantageous 
influence on the life of the German people, so in the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the life of the 



132 EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 

French court morally corroded first our princes and 
afterwards our middle classes. And just as the North 
American War of Independence strengthened mightily 
the revolutionary tendencies of the French people, so 
the French Revolution itself, almost at one blow it may 
be said, completely altered the whole of our views as 
to the relations between the State, the prince, and the 
people. International intercourse in literature is now 
of quite incalculable influence. In the same manner as 
in private family life, neighbors void of moral purpose 
may do the greatest possible damage here to the tender 
plants which we have trained with so much care and at 
such sacrifice. 

7. We have one means of protection left: the firm- 
ness of character and the clearness of view which char- 
acterize the upper classes. For it Is they who are first 
attacked by the strange fungus growth, and the mil- 
lions of spores thus produced spread over the land and 
destroy the very vigor of the people. This fact re- 
minds us once more of the necessity for a school policy 
on a large scale. The best educational arrangements 
for the lower classes would be of little use to us if we 
did not provide at least as carefully, If possible better, 
for the upper classes. The upper classes are, and will 
remain, the educators of the people. As the master so 
will be the servant, and as the teacher so will be the 
pupil. If we are wanting morally the pupil will be by 
no means perfect; If we are hostilely Inclined to re- 
ligion the pupil will also be so; if we Indulge in 



EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP 133 

material enjoyment we shall preach thrift and temper- 
ance in vain. We cannot expect more devotion to our 
interests and to those of the State than what we our- 
selves show to the interests of the lower classes and to 
the affairs of the State. 

Thus also Von Nostitz says: "For the development 
of the internal relations of our national life the intrin- 
sic value of the upper classes is most important, even 
decisive. They deserve to disappear if they are weakly 
contented to shake their heads and futilely to deplore 
the future instead of helping to maintain the State by 
their energy, confidence, and generosity, to shape the 
domestic life of the people by applying high purposes 
to practical ends, and to do their utmost so long as the 
time is propitious. They deserve to be swept away if 
with shameless selfishness they are content to sit alone 
at the table of life and are foolish enough to believe 
that they can for all time keep the masses away by 
force when they have once taught them that enjoyment 
is the end of life. For it is the experience of history 
that the views of the lower classes are modeled on 
those of the upper. The question is, will the wealthy 
classes continue to be the leaders when they have 
ceased to be the rulers? For we shall remain only 
what we are, and reason and justice govern the lives of 
men and nations." 



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